THE  SUPREMACY 
OF  JESUS 


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JOSEPH  H   CROOKER 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


V-  {ft**. 


THE   SUPREMACY 
OF  JESUS 


THE  SUPREMACY 
OF  JESUS 


BY 


JOSEPH  HENRY  CROOKER 

Author  Of  M  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM  IN  AMERICAN  EDUCATION," 
"PROBLEMS  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY," 


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JESUS  BROUGHT  BACK,       etc. 


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1     IN-LUCE- 
1  VERITATIS  j 

BOSTON 
AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 

1904 


Copyright  igo4 
American  Unitarian  Association 


P  ublished  September  IQ04 


BT32  3 


Contents 

I.  The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus    9 

II.  Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism     .      33 

III.  A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus      85 

IV.  The  Master  of  Inner  Life     .     119 

V.  The  Authority  of  Jesus    .    .    159 


M313787 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 


THE  MEASURE  OF  JE8U8 

His  life  is  the  perpetual  rebuke  of  all  time  since. 
It  condemns  ancient  civilization,  it  condemns  modern 
civilization.  Wise  men  ice  have  since  had,  and  good  men; 
but  this  Galilean  youth  strode  before  the  world  whole 
thousands  of  years,  so  much  of  divinity  was  in  him. 
His  words  solve  the  questions  of  this  present  age.  In 
him  the  Godlike  and  the  human  met  and  embraced,  and 
a  divine  life  was  bom.  Measure  him  by  the  world's 
greatest  sons — how  poor  they  are!  Try  him  by  the  best 
of  men — how  little  and  low  they  appear!  Exalt  him  as 
much  as  we  may,  we  shall  yet  perhaps  come  short  of 
the  mark.  But  still  was  he  not  our  brother;  the  son 
of  man,  as  we  are;  the  son  of  God,  like  ourselves?  His 
excellence — was  it  not  human  excellence?  His  wisdom, 
lovet  piety, — sweet  and  celestial  as  they  were, — are  they 
not  what  we  also  may  attain?  In  him,  as  in  a  mirror, 
we  may  see  the  image  of  God,  and  go  on  from  glory  to 
glory,  till  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image,  led  by 
the  spirit  that  enlightens  the  humble.  Viewed  in  this 
way,  how  beautiful  is  the  life  of  Jesus!  Heaven  has 
eome  down  to  earth,  or,  rather,  earth  has  become 
heaven.  The  Son  of  God,  come  of  age,  has  taken 
possession  of  his  birthright.  The  brightest  revelation 
is  this  of  what  is  possible  for  all  men, — if  not  now, 
at  least  hereafter. 

Theodore  Parker. 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

The  word,  "Jesus,"  has  more  historic 
significance  than  any  other  name  in  the 
annals  of  the  human  race.  No  other  name 
has  entered  with  such  transforming  and 
sanctifying  influence  into  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  mankind.  The  words,  Buddha 
and  Confucius, have  been  reverently  spoken 
by  a  greater  number  of  human  beings,  but 
the  followers  of  these  sages  have  been 
comparatively  monotonous  masses  without 
large  historic  importance.  Moreover, 
while  Buddha  has  been  the  centre  of  some 
philosophical  speculation,  Confucius  has 
remained  a  prosaic  figure  inspiring  neither 
the  artist  nor  the  theologian.  But  how 
remarkable  are  the  creations  that  have 
been  built  upon  Jesus,  in  character,  in 
variety,  and  in  number! 

What  literary  activities  have  clustered 
about  the  name  of  Jesus,  to  tell  his  story 
and  explain  his  mission !    And  now,  at  the 

9 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

end  of  the  nineteen  centuries  since  his 
day,  the  freshest  book  from  the  press, 
most  eagerly  sought  by  scholar  and  peas- 
ant, finding  its  way  into  the  heart  of 
Africa,  through  the  jungles  of  India,  into 
the  seaports  of  China,  is  one  that  robes 
that  figure  in  some  new  thought  or  senti- 
ment. 

Wherever  the  traveler  goes  among  the 
cities  of  Europe,  he  sees  on  every  side, 
rising  over  all  other  structures,  the  cathe- 
drals, which  in  their  massive  grandeur, 
are  a  most  impressive  and  wonderful 
testimony  to  the  enduring  influence  of 
that  great  life.  And  the  cross,  his  instru- 
ment of  death,  has  become  the  supreme 
symbol  of  immortal  life  in  a  universal  lan- 
guage of  the  heart.  Few  are  the  mountains 
on  whose  bleak  crags  its  shadow  does  not 
fall !  Few  are  the  cities  over  whose  teeming 
life  its  arms  do  not  glisten!  Few  are  the 
isles  of  the  sea  where  it  is  not  planted  at 
the  head  of  some  grave !  When  we  visit  any 
art  collection  in  the  world,  we  find  on  every 
hand  that  genius  has  striven  to  immortalize 
the  name  of  Jesus.     The  history  of  the 

10 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

Christ  of  Art,  tells  the  story  of  European 
art  for  fifteen  centuries.  To  portray  his 
features  and  to  perpetuate  the  accents  of 
his  ministry  has  been  the  inspiration  of 
painting  and  sculpture. 

Who  can  number  the  theological  systems 
that  have  grown  up  about  Jesus  in  these 
threescore  generations'?  What  labyrinths 
of  speculation!  Libraries  piled  full  of 
books  that  attempt  to  explain  the  mysteries 
of  his  being.  Councils  have  been  called 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  decide  certain 
questions  respecting  his  nature  and  mes- 
sage. What  infinite  range  of  ideas  has 
that  name  signified!  Men  have  read  into 
that  word,  "Jesus,"  everything  from  pure 
humanity  to  absolute  deity. 

Some  of  the  greatest  political  movements 
of  the  race  have  been  associated  with  the 
name  of  Jesus.  The  Holy  Roman  empire, 
the  Crusades,  the  Saxon  Eeformation,  the 
voyage  of  the  Pilgrims  to  America  to 
secure  in  the  wilderness  of  the  new  world 
a  peaceful  home  for  their  faith, — these 
movements  represent  certain  phases  of  the 
historic    significance    of    the    Prophet    of 

11 


) 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

Nazareth.  To-day,  the  pope  rules  at  Eome 
in  the  name  of  Jesus,  over  an  ecclesiastical 
order,  which  is  the  most  marvelous  system 
of  administration  that  has  ever  come  into 
existence.  It  is  the  supreme  product  of 
man's  creative  genius  in  the  direction  of 
polity  and  organization.  It  embraces  in 
its  design  the  whole  race,  and  touches  by 
its  influence  every  land  and  people.  It 
promises  an  assured  perpetuity,  in  strange 
contrast  to  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of 
ordinary  dynasties.  It  was  to  spread  a 
knowledge  of  the  name  of  Jesus  and  to 
extend  the  power  of  the  papacy  that  a 
queen  bade  Columbus  pioneer  a  way  to  the 
peoples  far  across  the  seas. 

The  civilization  that  now  encircles  the 
globe ;  that  holds  the  unexhausted  energies 
and  leavening  powers  of  the  race;  that 
surrounds  barbarism  and  contracts  its 
limits;  that  fraternizes  the  nations;  that 
breaks  the  chains  of  the  slave,  levels  the 
walls  of  caste,  and  dissipates  the  darkness 
of  superstition,  is  christened  in  honor  of 
Jesus.  We  cannot  say,  as  it  was  once 
said,  that  the  forces  of  civilization  all  flow 

12 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

from  Jesus  as  from  a  fountain — they  must 
be  regarded  as  inherent  in  human  nature 
itself — yet  it  is  a  fact  of  history  that  where 
that  name  has  gone,  there  has  been  the 
highway  of  humanity. 

Socrates  created  an  intellectual  move- 
ment which  is  to-day  a  living  factor  in  the 
world's  progress,  but  no  church  has  en- 
shrined his  memory  in  hymn  and  liturgy. 
Art  has  not  clustered  its  creations  about 
his  name.  The  great  sage  of  Athens 
remains  as  the  wise  teacher  of  a  few 
students;  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  abides 
in  the  common  heart  as  the  inspiring  and 
comforting  friend  in  every  hour  of  need. 

Mr.  Froude  instituted  a  comparison 
between  Jesus  and  Caesar.  Caesar  em- 
bodied in  admirably  working  institutions 
a  theory  of  statecraft,  which  placed  Rome 
on  the  way  to  those  imperial  achievements 
which  are  the  wonder  of  historians,  and 
which  lifted  humanity  a  long  distance  in 
the  line  of  progress.  He  put  the  stamp 
of  his  genius  upon  the  affairs  of  his 
time,  and  upon  the  life  of  distant  ages. 
The   imperial   system  which  he   founded 

13 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

has  fired  the  ambition,  and  directed  the 
energies  of  statesmen,  while  it  has  swayed 
the  destinies  of  nations.  The  thought 
of  Caesar  still  lives  in  the  policies  of 
Europe.  But  no  order  like  the  Jesuits 
make  him  their  master  and  leader.  No 
churches,  no  paintings,  no  creeds  have 
been  created  to  publish  his  ideas  or  honor 
his  character.  No  theologian  has  found 
in  him  a  key  to  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
death.  His  name  is  not  intoned  in  cathe- 
dral, nor  is  it  whispered  in  cottage  to 
cheer  and  to  comfort. 

Muhammed  founded  a  religion,  which 
contains  universal  elements,  and  is  en- 
dowed with  creative  power.  But  the  name 
of  Muhammed  has  not  meant  so  much  nor 
has  it  created  so  much  as  the  name  of 
Jesus.  Under  the  influence  of  the  great 
Arab  art  blossomed  in  the  Alhambra  and 
learning  flourished  in  Bagdad.  But  these 
were  sporadic  movements.  Persian  ethics, 
Hebrew  piety,  Greek  philosophy  and 
Roman  civility  have  borne  fruit  in  the 
nations  associated  with  the  name  of  Jesus 
and  not  with   the   name   of  Muhammed. 

14 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

Whether  we  speak  of  art,  of  literature,  of 
philosophy,  or  of  government,  the  vaster 
systems  cluster  about  Jesus. 

The  horoscope  divides  the  nations  of 
the  future  between  Muhammed  and  Jesus, 
and  while  Islam  can  probably  do  more 
at  present  for  certain  pagan  races  than 
the  church,  yet  the  civilization  connected 
with  the  name  of  Jesus,  will  be  dominant, 
because  Christianity  has  in  him  the  incom- 
parably greater  teacher;  and  also  because 
it  contains  the  garnered  riches  of  the 
centuries.  Moreover  its  peoples  possess 
the  maturer  manhood. 

To  illustrate  another  phase  of  the 
historic  significance  of  the  word  "Jesus," 
we  may  look  at  it  in  its  relation  to  personal 
religion.  It  is  not  alone,  there  are  other 
such  names,  yet  it  is  preeminent.  The 
influence  of  Aristotle  is  scholastic.  It 
shapes  the  form  of  man's  thought.  The 
influence  of  Muhammed  is  disciplinary,  it 
harnesses  men  into  new  habits.  The 
influence  of  Confucius  is  didactic,  it 
teaches  people  a  formal  system  of  conduct. 
The   influence   of  Buddha   is   exemplary, 

15 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

illustrating  an  attitude  of  self-renuncia- 
tion. 

Now,  the  influence  of  Jesus  is  personal, 
putting  us  into  companionship  with  a  great 
life.  Thus  Christianity  under  all  its 
creeds  and  rituals  has  been  a  personal 
religion.  When  men  have  been  brought 
into  contact  with  Jesus,  they  have  felt 
themselves  in  the  presence  of  a  lovable 
and  loving  person;  a  man  of  thought,  but 
something  more  than  a  teacher  like 
Aristotle;  a  master,  but  something  more 
than  a  disciplinarian  like  Muhammed;  a 
moral  leader,  but  something  more  than  a 
tutor  like  Confucius;  a  perfect  man,  but 
something  more  than  the  one  type  like 
Buddha. 

Jesus  has  stood  for  a  tender  intimacv 
of  fellowship  which  no  other  prophet  has 
ever  inspired.  There  is  loyalty  to 
Muhammed,  respect  for  Confucius,  imita- 
tion of  Buddha,  but  love  for  Jesus — men 
have  taken  him  into  their  hearts.  Jesus 
above  all  else  has  been  a  personal  presence 
building  himself  into  the  lives  of  men. 
People  have  kept  the  wonderful  Man  who 

16 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

walked  through  the  fields  of  Galilee  in 
their  most  intimate  and  loving  fellowship. 
Nothing  like  this,  to  the  same  extent  or 
with  equal  spiritual  power,  has  been 
true  of  any  other  character  in  history. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  we  may  well 
ask:  In  what  did  the  preeminence  of 
Jesus  exist?  What  has  given  him  such 
remarkable  prominence  in  history;  such 
vast  influence  over  human  lives!  It 
explains  nothing  to  say  that  he  was  God. 
That  is  simply  a  confession  of  reverent 
appreciation  made  by  the  adoring  heart, 
not  an  interpretation  reached  by  the 
exploring  intellect.  It  is  no  explanation 
to  say  that  God  makes  the  grass  grow. 
One  does  not  explain  the  independence  of 
America  by  saying  that  Washington  was 
inspired.  It  is  true  that  men  sometimes 
imagine  that  the  assertion  of  the  deity 
of  Jesus  clears  up  the  whole  problem. 
But  that  is  as  irrational  as  the  conclusion 
of  the  ancient  Persians,  who,  when  they 
could  no  longer  tell  who  wrote  the  Avesta, 
asserted  that  God  wrote  it. 

There    are    people    who    say    that    the 

17 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

preeminence  of  Jesus  was  in  what  he  did, 
the  works  that  he  performed.  But  Jesus 
was  not  an  organizer  like  Caesar  or 
Muhammed.  He  formulated  no  plans. 
He  founded  no  ecclesiastical  system.  He 
drilled  no  emissaries.  He  elaborated  no 
civic  or  religious  machinery.  His  kingdom 
of  heaven  had  no  official  framework.  His 
movement  was  so  destitute  of  organization 
that  it  has  been  the  wonder  of  the  world 
that  it  ever  continued  to  exist.  His 
beatitudes  and  parables  seem  like  precious 
seeds  carelessly  scattered  over  the 
unfenced  fields  of  humanity. 

Others  assert  that  the  work  of  Jesus 
was  the  introduction  of  a  new  spiritual 
economy  into  the  universe:  the  presenta- 
tion of  his  blood  in  heaven,  acting  as  a 
sedative,  quieting  God's  anger;  and  oper- 
ating on  earth  as  a  charm,  recreating 
man's  nature.  He  effected,  the  old  theo- 
logians said,  a  supernatural  reconciliation 
between  God  and  man.  But  this  is  a  far- 
fetched, cumbersome,  materialistic  scheme, 
which  presents  more  difficulties  than  it 
solves.     It  has  fortunately  been  abandoned 

18 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

by  progressive  men  almost  everywhere. 

The  old  view  has  been  crowded  aside 
by  the  expulsive  power  of  the  truth  itself. 
The  presence  of  such  an  economy  is  not 
discoverable  by  psychologist  or  historian; 
its  existence  would  invalidate  all  their 
scientific  conclusions.  The  onward  ways 
of  Providence  are  in  the  same  stately 
courses  of  law  in  Christendom  as  else- 
where. The  cross  is  no  hiatus  in  history 
between  a  natural  and  a  mystical  course 
of  events.  The  personal  influence  of 
Jesus  upon  human  life  is  an  evident  and 
powerful  historical  factor.  This  we  can 
feel  and  understand.  But  the  operation 
of  a  sacrificial  and  atoning  agency,  which 
is  sometimes  claimed  for  him,  is  not 
discoverable.  When  we  deal  with  the 
vast  and  unquestioned  power  of  Jesus  in 
the  world,  we  deal  with  the  dynamics  of 
a  soul,  not  with  the  magic  of  an  alien 
visitant. 

There  are  some  who  contend  that  the 
source  of  Jesus 's  power  lay  in  his 
message :  he  taught  a  new  doctrine  of  life. 
The  sublimity  of  his  teachings  is  evident. 

19 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

But  many  of  his  beautiful  precepts  had 
already  been  set  forth  by  prophet  or 
psalmist.  Jesus  found  much  of  the 
material  of  his  message  at  hand,  as  was 
the  case  with  Shakespere.  What  blossoms 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  its  roots 
in  the  Old  Testament.  But  like  the  immor- 
tal bard,  Jesus  reshaped  the  material 
that  he  used;  he  gave  it  the  touch  of 
genius,  he  breathed  into  it  the  breath  of 
life. 

And  yet,  with  all  this  in  mind,  we  must 
hold  that  even  his  " sayings"  do  not 
describe  or  explain  his  preeminence.  At 
best,  sayings  are  outward,  partial,  and 
fragmentary.  They  can  never  serve  as 
adequate  index  or  measure  of  life.  As 
John  Morley  so  well  says:  "A  man  is 
always  so  much  more  than  his  words." 
There  is  an  ideal  of  life,  an  aspiration  of 
soul,  a  fragrance  of  sanctity  which  no 
words  can  express.  There  are  riches  of 
character  for  which  no  tongue  has  a 
language.  The  sayings  of  Jesus  do  much 
to  record,  but  little  to  explain,  his  power. 
We  must  look  behind  the  message  to  the 
creative  master. 

20 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

Our  key  to  the  problem  is  this:  The 
power  of  Jesus  was  not  in  what  he  said, 
but  in  what  he  was.  It  flowed  from  his 
rich  and  noble  personality.  There  is  a 
personal  power,  independent  of  deed  or 
word,  which  is  an  indescribable  but  effi- 
cient ethical  and  historical  force.  It  is 
the  dynamic  energy  which  inheres  in 
character,  as  magnetism  inheres  in  a  load- 
stone. Moral  greatness  is  radiant;  it 
lights  up  dark  places  like  a  great  sun. 
We  all  remember,  how  as  children,  we 
were  thrilled  with  admiration  that  passed 
into  aspiration,  warmed  to  noble  senti- 
ments that  prompted  action,  by  contact 
with  some  saintly  man  or  woman.  We 
cannot  remember  what  was  said  or  done, 
but  the  proximity  of  a  great  personality 
awakened  impulses  that  have  never  died. 

We  admit  this  fact  in  the  most  common 
remarks  of  every  day  life.  When  we  say, 
He  is  a  fine  speaker  but  what  he  says  would 
not  amount  to  much  if  anyone  else  said 
it, — we  recognize  how  the  riches  of  an 
unusual  personality  flow  out  into  the  words 
and   give   them   special    significance    and 

21 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

peculiar  power.  It  is  said  of  Charming, 
that  when  he  read  a  passage  of  Scripture, 
he  infused  into  it  a  new  meaning.  When 
he  said  "God"  the  hearer  felt  a  thrill  of 
uplifting  devotion.  It  was  his  abundance 
of  personal  piety  behind  the  words  that 
gave  them  new  and  larger  influence.  If 
we  examine  our  memory  for  the  seasons 
of  regeneration,  when  a  commanding  pur- 
pose was  horn  within  us  which  has  been 
our  banner  in  all  our  marches  and  battles, 
we  shall  find,  as  a  rule,  that  the  occasion 
was  not  an  outlook  upon  Nature  nor  the 
study  of  a  precept,  but  communion  with 
a  great  character  in  real  life,  or  in  litera- 
ture where  real  life  is  immortalized. 

The  importance  of  personality  has  been 
eloquently  described  by  Dr.  Hedge:  "It 
depends,  not  so  much  on  the  clearness  and 
fullness  of  the  revelation,  as  on  the  person- 
ality with  which  it  is  associated,  whether 
or  not  the  revelation  shall  become  an 
historic  dispensation.  The  moral  intu- 
itions of  Plato  far  transcended  those  of 
Muhammed,  but  the  moral  force,  the 
momentum  of  personality,  the  quality  of 

22 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

soul  in  Muhammed  exceeded  the  genius  of 
Plato.  Adopted  by  Providence,  the  slen- 
der thought  and  vast  soul  of  the  Arab 
have  rallied  around  them  the  fifth  part 
of  the  human  race,  whilst  the  fuller  revela- 
tion of  the  Greek  could  only  modify 
Gentile  and  Christian  theology  with  its 
intellectual  leaven.'  *  This  is  simply  to 
state,  in  brief,  that  life  is  larger  and 
deeper  than  thought;  and  to  move  and 
impress  human  beings  profoundly  a  sub- 
lime life  will  do  what  no  mere  theory  or 
doctrine  can  possibly  accomplish. 

It  is  the  power  of  personality  that 
transforms  and  regenerates  the  world.  It 
is  the  manhood  working  in  the  deed  and 
speaking  in  the  word  that  makes  them 
significant.  A  great  character  sheds 
abroad  an  influence  as  cheering,  as  quick- 
ening, and  as  luminous  as  sunlight.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  what  Jesus  organized,  not 
what  he  suffered,  not  what  he  said:  we 
must  look  in  the  direction  of  his  person- 
ality for  an  explanation  of  his  influence. 
It  was  the  sweet  but  strong  majesty  of 
his  manhood  that  moved  the  people.    It 

23 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

is  said  that  the  Gospels  do  not  explain 
the  power  of  Jesus  over  men.  Of  course 
they  do  not.  They  simply  record  the  fact. 
He  explains  them ;  they  do  not  explain  him. 

It  was  not  because  Jesus  laid  down  the 
Golden  Eule  that  he  taught  the  people  "as 
one  having  authority."  It  was  because 
he  himself  was  a  Golden  Eule  incarnate. 
It  was  not  because  he  spoke  the  Beatitudes 
that  they  heard  him  gladly.  It  was  because 
his  life  was  a  Beatitude.  It  was  not 
because  he  taught  in  beautiful  parables 
that  they  loved  him.  It  was  because  the 
spirit  of  his  life  touched  them  with  vital 
inspiration. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  Jesus 
told  the  Samaritan  woman  anything  new. 
It  was  a  common  saying  "that  God  is  a 
spirit  and  must  be  worshipped  in  spirit." 
But  what  thrilled  her  was  his  personality 
(imagine  Emerson  talking  to  an  eager 
country  lad!).  She  felt  the  sweetness  of 
spirit,  the  tenderness  of  look,  the  gracious- 
ness  of  manner:  no  wonder  she  declared 
that  she  had  found  the  Messiah!  As 
Matthew    Arnold    stated:       "What  was 

24 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

wanted  was  a  fuller  description  of  right- 
eousness,' ' — an  embodiment  of  spiritual 
righteousness  in  an  actual  life.  This  "de- 
scription of  righteousness"  Jesus  pre- 
sented to  her  in  his  own  personality. 

Thus,  Jesus  created  a  new  era  by 
illustrating  a  new  order  of  manhood.  It 
is  not  an  impropriety  that  our  calendar 
commemmorates  his  name  and  fame. 
Every  great  master  founds  a  new  type: 
the  dome  of  Brunelleschi  in  architecture, 
the  opulent  genius  of  Raphael  in  painting, 
Gutenberg  with  his  first  printed  book,  Pitt 
by  his  official  integrity  creating  a  new  era 
in  the  civil  service  of  England,  John 
Howard  illustrating  a  new  method  of 
philanthropy.  The  first  railroad  began 
a  revolution,  not  only  in  the  traffic  and 
travel,  but  in  the  civilization  of  the  world : 
it  was  the  application  of  a  new  motive 
power  to  human  affairs.  So  likewise,  the 
character  of  Jesus  began  a  reorganization 
of  human  life,  individual  and  corporate, — ■ 
it  was  the  application  to  the  springs  and 
sources  of  conduct  of  new  motives:  senti- 
ments that  easily  move  men  along  all  the 

25 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

pathways  of  service.  Just  because  he 
introduced  into  the  world  a  new  type  of 
moral  architecture,  a  new  agency  for  the 
education  and  guidance  of  the  soul, — a 
character  that  was  a  masterpiece  of  moral 
genius, — Jesus  rebuilt  the  ideals  and  re- 
created the  motives  of  mankind. 

Now,  what  were  the  essential  and 
distinguishing  elements  of  the  new  order 
of  manhood  which  Jesus  exemplified  in 
his  personality?  What  was  there  in  his 
character  that  made  him  a  creative  histori- 
cal influence?  As  near  as  we  can  com- 
prehend it  or  describe  it,  the  new  order  of 
manhood  which  Jesus  illustrated  may  be 
briefly  though  inadequately  defined  in 
\  these  words:  the  all-sufficiency  of  Inner 
Life.  The  Kingdom  of  God  understood 
as  the  life  of  the  soul :  purity  its  condition, 
growth  its  method,  love  its  motive,  service 
its  expression,  character  its  fruitage. 
Heart-life  issuing  in  helpfulness.  This  is 
what  Jesus  actually  realized  in  his  own 
personality;  and  because  he  realized  it 
supremely,  he  became  the  master  of  all 
hearts,  lifting  them  up  to  God  and  moving 
them  to  godliness. 

26 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

Jesus  was  artist  of  the  Inner  Life.  He 
looked  in  not  out  for  strength ;  and  then  he 
went  abroad  to  spend  himself  in  service  for 
others.  He  built  his  kingdom,  not  on  the 
circumstantial,  but  on  the  spiritual,  ele- 
ments of  life.  Not  the  power  of  allies 
but  of  his  manhood  must  suffice.  With 
him  everything  was  "as  natural  as  life;" 
about  him  a  wilderness  of  artificial  piety. 
With  him  a  desire  to  impart  to  others  the 
life  which  he  possessed;  about  him  men 
sought  to  enrich  themselves  by  impover- 
ishing others.  With  him  an  all-embracing 
love  flowing  out  to  the  whole  world  in 
an  unrestricted  brotherhood;  about  him 
sympathy  and  kindness  as  narrow  as 
creed  or  race  or  clan.  With  him  a  supreme 
reverence  for  the  moral  intuitions  of  his 
own  heart  leading  to  spiritual  worship  of 
the  Father,  over  all  and  in  all;  about  him 
a  reverence  for  names  and  places,  forms 
and  traditions,  bringing  more  tears  than 
smiles,  more  dread  than  joy.  A  new  type 
of  character,  indeed! 

These  contrasts  between  the  common 
ambitions  of  men  in  the  olden  time  and 

27 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

the  character  of  Jesus  are  numerous  and 
radical;  and  they  explain  his  power  and 
prominence  in  history.  Here  a  man  trying 
to  be  a  saint  by  a  dull  monotony  of  formal 
ceremonies.  There  Jesus,  independent 
of  forms,  but  living  a  life  grander  than 
any  ideal  of  oriental  priest  or  Greek 
philosopher.  Here  a  Eoman  fired  by  the 
passion  for  world-wide  dominion.  There 
Jesus  an  incomparable  character,  satisfied 
with  the  kingdom  of  God  within  his  own 
heart,  and  destined  to  rule  the  world  from 
his  throne  of  love  long  after  the  last  Eoman 
had  passed  away.  Here  a  rich  young  man 
in  the  pride  of  his  large  possessions,  that 
after  all  never  satisfied  the  yearning  of 
the  spirit  for  eternal  life.  There  Jesus 
with  a  spiritual  wealth  incorruptible  and 
eternal,  which  did  not  enslave  him  and  load 
him  with  cares,  but  which  enabled  him  to 
win  others  to  the  good  life,  and  in  this 
way  multiplying  their  joys.  Here  a  Phari- 
see, learned  in  the  lore  of  the  schools  and 
trying  to  serve  God  by  spinning  a  cobweb 
of  theological  speculations  remote  from 
the  vital  concerns  of  human  life.    There 

28 


The  Historic  Position  of  Jesus 

Jesus,  with  a  wisdom  that  touches  the 
heart  because  drawn  from  the  depths  of 
his  own  soul,  and  he  proclaims  a  message 
that  gives  infinite  gladness  because  it 
gives  abundant  life. 

The  Greeks  had  an  order  of  manhood 
that  was  the  worship  of  Beauty.  The 
Eomans  had  an  order  of  manhood  that  was 
the  worship  of  Power.  The  spirit  of  man 
had  sought  its  salvation  among  the 
affairs  of  the  world  and  the  incidents  of 
material  things.  And  the  spirit  of  man 
was  not  satisfied.  In  the  personality  of 
Jesus  was  presented  a  new  order  of 
manhood;  the  elaboration  of  Beauty  and 
Power  within,  the  all- sufficiency  of  Inner 
Life, 

The  common  Jewish  ideal  had  been  a 
somewhat  external  conformity  of  life  to  the 
law  of  righteousness.  Jesus  presented  to 
the  world  a  personality  informed  with  the 
spirit  of  love  that  made  righteousness  an 
easy  habit  of  life.  Henceforth  men 
cherished  a  new  ideal  of  excellence  and 
grew  under  the  inspiration  of  his  spirit 
into  a  new  service  and  a  new  peace.     The 

29 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

abundance  of  Inner  Life  makes  all  rules 
and  regulations  unnecessary:  Love  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law.  Thus  it  was  that 
Jesus  by  the  power  of  his  personality 
founded  a  new  order  of  manhood  among 
men;  and  for  this  he  must  ever  be  held 
in  most  grateful  and  loving  reverence. 


30 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 


TOPICS  TREATED 

1.  Some  Objections  to  these  Claims. 

2.  Fears  respecting  Gospel  Criticism. 

3.  Importance  of  the  Problem. 

4.  What   is    Gospel    Criticism? 

5.  Based  on   Facts   in   the   Records. 

6.  Constructive,   not   Destructive. 

7.  Leads  to  better  use  of  Gospels. 

8.  How  the  Story  of  Jesus  began. 

9.  Growth  and   Character   of   the   Synoptics. 

10.  The   Fourth   Gospel. 

11.  A   Theological   Treatise   about   Jesus. 

12.  Conclusions  must  be   frankly   accepted. 

13.  Some  Negative  Results. 

14.  Gains  greater  than  losses. 

15.  Jesus  less   mystical   but   more  Real. 

16.  New   Beauty   in  the   Birth    Stories. 

17.  Accounts    of    the   Resurrection. 

18.  How   more   Historical. 

19.  Greater  Proofs  of  the  Supremacy  of  Jesus. 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

It  will  doubtless  be  felt  by  some  readers 
that  the  views  of  Jesus  just  presented  and 
the  claims  in  his  behalf  just  made  are 
erroneous,  because  they  assume  that  the 
Gospels  are  precisely  what  the  creeds  of 
the  church  have  represented  them  to  be, 
whereas  it  has  been  discovered  that  the 
creeds  are  at  fault,  and  these  writings  are 
not  at  all  what  theologians  claimed  them 
to  be.  Indeed  the  objection  is  stoutly 
urged  by  some  scholars  that,  as  the  tradi- 
tional belief  respecting  the  Gospels  as 
absolutely  accurate  accounts  is  untrue, 
therefore  the  estimate  of  Jesus  just  given 
is  unsound  and  unhistorical.  These  critics 
contend  that  all  such  praise  of  Jesus  is 
mere  pious  sentiment,  with  no  basis  in 
reality,  because  recent  Biblical  science 
leaves  the  pages  of  the  Gospels  destitute 
of  historical  authority. 

This  objection  is  sufficiently  serious  to 

33 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

deserve  examination,  although  it  touches 
only  a  part  of  the  foregoing  statement 
respecting  the  historical  significance  of 
Jesus.  We  must  frankly  consider  this 
problem.  It  is  one  that  no  intelligent 
person  can  afford  to  ignore.  If  Gospel 
Criticism  has  made  Jesus  a  shadowy  and 
uncertain  figure,  the  world  of  religion 
ought  at  once  to  take  account  of  such  a 
momentous  fact.  We  cannot  afford  to 
imperil  our  religious  hopes  and  ideals  by 
closely  associating  them  with  mere  fictions. 
If  the  Gospels  are  so  imperfect  that  they 
afford  no  real  historical  material  for  a 
veritable  life  of  Jesus,  the  sooner  we 
adjust  our  religious  faith  to  the  fact  the 
better.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  these  writ- 
ings, when  subjected  to  the  most  searching 
scientific  investigation,  show  themselves  to 
be  of  the  very  greatest  historic  worth, 
though  of  a  different  quality  than  that 
long  attributed  to  them  by  creed  makers, 
this  important  fact  we  need  as  an  aid,  not 
only  to  love  of  Jesus,  but  to  faith  in  spirit- 
ual verities.  However  unwelcome  the  task, 
and  however  we  may  shrink  from  so  seri- 

34 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

ous  an  undertaking,  nevertheless  the  ques- 
tion must  be  faced  and  answered :  In  what 
new  light  does  modern  Gospel  Criticism 
place  Jesus? 

It  is  clear  enough,  as  all  freely  admit, 
that  the  name,  "Jesus,"  has  played  a 
mighty  part  in  the  world's  history  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years.  But  today, 
large  numbers  of  earnest  men  and  women 
fear  that,  in  spite  of  all  this,  the  discov- 
eries of  recent  years  have  cast  so  many 
doubts  upon  the  accuracy  of  the  Gospels, 
that  we  cannot  be  sure  about  the  things, 
until  recently  universally  accepted.  There 
is  a  terrible  dread  gripping  at  the  hearts 
of  many  Christians  in  these  days,  through- 
out the  countries  effected  by  modern  cul- 
ture. It  is  the  apprehension  that  we  may 
have  to  give  up  our  loved  Master,  and  put 
the  story  of  his  life  away  among  the  beau- 
tiful but  unreal  creations  of  human  fancy. 
At  least,  it  is  feared  that  the  character  of 
the  man,  who  bore  the  name  of  Jesus,  has 
been  so  far  moved  from  solid  reality  into 
the  realm  of  legend,  and  so  immersed  in 
uncertainty,  that  he  can  no  longer  be  to 

35 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

us  a  real  historical  person,  to  love  as  a 
friend  and  revere  as  a  teacher. 

The  only  satisfactory  course  for  us  to 
pursue,  in  this  time  of  bold  inquiry,  is  to 
examine  carefully  what  has  actually  been 
done  to  throw  light  upon  the  origin  and 
character  of  the  Gospels.  When  we  have 
in  hand  all  the  discoveries  that  Gospel 
Criticism  can  furnish  us,  then  we  must 
address  ourselves  to  the  problem:  Have 
these  writings  become  useless  as  reports 
of  the  life  of  Jesus,  now  that  they  have 
been  subjected  to  the  searching  scrutiny 
of  scientific  research  ?  Are  our  authorities 
so  imperfect  that  Jesus  fades  out  of  real 
history  into  mere  dreamland?  This  is  not 
a  mere  academic  problem.  It  is  vastly 
more  than  a  trivial  matter  of  literary 
criticism.  The  very  basis  of  our  Christian 
life  is  involved  in  this  discussion.  As  we 
love  the  truth  we  must  see  what  the  facts 
in  this  particular  realm  really  are.  As 
we  love  Jesus,  we  must  listen  to  the  critics 
to  discover  whether  that  love  is  justified 
by  the  facts.  Our  appreciation  of  Jesus 
must  be  an  appreciation  that  can  maintain 

36 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

itself  in  the  light  of  discovery.  Now,  the 
only  way  to  solve  this  momentous  problem 
is  to  lay  hold  of  the  facts.  Let  us  then 
look  squarely  and  courageously  at  the 
situation  before  us. 

A  careful  application  of  the  scientific 
method  of  investigation  to  the  Gospels  has 
led  to  certain  discoveries  of  great  impor- 
tance respecting  the  processes  by  which 
they  were  produced.  And  these  discov- 
eries in  turn  help  us  to  understand  in  what 
way  and  how  far  these  writings  are  his- 
torical. The  scientific  method  is  as  appli- 
cable to  historical  documents  as  to  physi- 
cal phenomena.  It  is  simply  an  earnest 
and  exhaustive  search  for  facts,  and  an 
interpretation  of  facts  to  find  causes  and 
]aws. 

Just  as  the  physicist  or  biologist  observes 
and  experiments  to  discover  realities,  not 
imposing  his  opinions  but  allowing  Nature 
to  tell  its  own  story,  so  the  scientific 
student  of  the  Gospels  observes  carefully 
all  the  facts  which  they  contain.  He  tries 
to  understand  the  meaning  and  relation  of 
these  facts,  so  that  he  may  gain  an  insight 

37 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

into  the  laws  underlying  them.  In  this 
way  he  learns  the  method  by  which  they 
were  produced;  he  traces  the  influences 
which  worked  to  create  them;  and  he  dis- 
covers the  character  which  belongs  to  their 
different  parts. 

In  other  words,  the  modern  Biblical 
student  lets  the  Gospels  tell  their  own 
story.  He  abandons  mere  tradition;  he 
surrenders  all  prepossessions ;  he  represses 
his  own  desires  and  wishes;  he  seeks  the 
exact  facts;  he  stands  aside  that  Eeality 
may  speak.  If  the  conclusions  reached  dif- 
fer from  the  teachings  of  ancient  writers, 
it  is  because  the  facts  in  the  Gospels 
themselves  compel  him  to  hold  these  con- 
clusions. These  modern  views  are  not  due 
to  the  sympathy  of  the  friends  or  the  im- 
agination of  the  foes  of  the  Bible  and  reli- 
gion. They  are  the  discoveries  reached 
by  a  careful,  prolonged,  and  reverent 
study  of  the  Gospel  facts.  They  are  the 
conclusions  of  the  exploring  and  interpret- 
ing reason,  scientific  inductions  which  rest 
upon  the  phenomena  presented  by  these 
documents  themselves. 

38 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

As  might  be  expected,  the  scientific  study 
of  these  writings  (aided  by  all  the  other 
historical  facts  so  far  known  that  bear 
upon  this  problem)  has  led  to  new  theories 
respecting  their  date,  authorship,  method 
of  production,  and  general  character. 
That  important  discoveries  would  be  made 
as  soon  as  the  Gospels  were  studied  in  the 
scientific  spirit  is  a  result  that  might  rea- 
sonably have  been  anticipated.  As  scientific 
research  has  revolutionized  our  ideas  of 
plant  and  animal,  of  star  and  rock;  as  scien- 
tific historical  investigations  have  changed 
our  views  respecting  many  social  and  polit- 
ical matters,  extending  our  knowledge  of 
customs  and  institutions  and  giving  us  new 
conceptions  of  the  evolution  of  the  human 
race,  it  is  evident  that  the  same  method, 
when  applied  to  the  Gospels,  would  throw 
a  flood  of  light  upon  them,  discrediting 
many  old  notions  about  them  and  revealing 
their  true  origin  and  character. 

We  must  always  bear  in  mind,  what  is 
so  often  forgotten: — 

(1)  That  these  new  conclusions  are 
based    upon  the  facts  that  the   Gospels 

39 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

themselves  furnish.  The  conservative 
divine  often  meets  the  scientific  student 
with  the  objection:  "What  right  have  you 
to  set  aside  the  ancient  traditions  of  the 
church?  Who  gave  you  authority  to  sit 
in  judgment  upon  the  creed  of  Christen- 
dom? Have  you  not  spun  these  theories 
out  of  your  too  ardent  fancies  f  How  absurd 
for  you  to  claim  to  have  found  these  facts 
in  the  Gospels,  for  thousands  of  scholars 
as  keen  as  you  have  read  these  pages  for 
centuries,  and  they  have  not  seen  what  you 
pretend  to  have  discovered.  Is  it  possible 
that  they  have  all  been  blind  and  that  only 
you  have  eyes  to  see  the  truth  ? ' ■ 

The  reply  which  the  scientific  student 
makes  to  this  representative  of  tradition 
is  similar  to  that  which  the  discoverer  in 
chemistry  makes  to  those  who  deny  his 
report  of  what  he  has  found  in  Nature. 
As  the  chemist  says:  Nature  furnishes  in 
the  researches  of  my  laboratory  these  facts 
which  warrant  my  conclusions;  so  the 
student  of  the  Gospels  says:  By  paying 
attention  to  the  facts  in  these  documents, 
I  arrive   at  my  conclusions.     The   facts 

40 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

themselves  are  more  authoritative  than 
the  mere  opinions  of  the  ancient  church- 
men. And  it  is  no  more  remarkable  that 
men  have  read  the  Gospels  for  ages  and 
missed  seeing  many  of  the  truths  scattered 
over  their  pages,  than  it  is  that  other  men 
looked  for  ages  at  trees  and  stones  but 
never  saw  the  plainest  facts  which  they 
contain ! 

(2)  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
these  new  views  are  not  really  destructive 
but  constructive.  They  are  not  harmful 
but  helpful  to  the  cause  of  piety.  The 
Gospels  cannot  be  destroyed  by  their  own 
facts.  Eeligion  cannot  be  injured  by  the 
truth.  The  sun  is  not  dishonored  by  the 
astronomer  who  looks  into  his  face  and 
discovers  the  spots  that  mottle  his  counte- 
nance! The  great  spiritual  truths  of  the 
Gospels  cannot  be  discredited  by  the  rever- 
ent criticism  that  deals  with  their  own 
facts,  even  if  human  imperfection  is  traced 
in  those  pages.  The  discoveries  of  Bibli- 
cal scholars  may  set  aside  the  erroneous 
claims  made  by  churchmen  in  behalf  of  the 
evangelical  records.  But  no  harm  can  come 

41 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

to  them,  to  Jesus,  or  to  the  real  cause  of 
piety  from  the  facts  which  they  contain  or 
from  the  scientific  conclusions  of  scholars 
based  upon  them. 

Discoveries  about  the  structure  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  cannot  set  aside  the 
Beatitudes.  If  these  Beatitudes  were 
spoken  on  different  occasions  rather  than 
at  the  same  time,  their  truth  and  beauty 
are  not  thereby  impaired.  A  new  view  of 
Jesus 's  relation  to  the  Messianic  Hope 
cannot  lessen  the  purity  of  his  life  or  the 
pathos  of  his  death.  A  fresh  insight  into 
the  poetical  character  of  the  stories  that 
cluster  about  his  birth  cannot  weaken  our 
admiration  for  the  teacher  who  showed 
boundless  sympathy  for  the  weak  and  the 
wayward,  and  intense  severity  toward  the 
hypocrites. 

(3)  However,  we  must  bear  in  mind 
another  fact  of  prime  importance.  These 
great  discoveries  do  surely  necessitate 
important  changes  in  our  uses  of  the 
Gospels.  Whenever  a  large  truth  is  dis- 
covered, the  method  of  life  is  revolution- 
ized and  mankind  is  blessed.    When  we  are 

42 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

given  a  great  fact,  new  and  central,  then 
the  reorganization  of  civilization  begins. 
Sufficient  knowledge  to  enable  us  to  under- 
stand and  utilize  electricity  comes  first; 
and  then  homes  are  differently  lighted, 
methods  of  travel  are  changed,  and  the 
habits  of  society  are  transformed.  When 
the  relation  of  disease  to  germs  is  discov- 
ered and  the  efficiency  of  the  antiseptic 
treatment  of  wounds  is  proved,  then  sur- 
gery develops  with  wonderful  rapidity. 

Eespect  for  facts  is  the  modern  spirit. 
Adjustment  of  life  to  reality  is  the  present 
ambition.  Nothing  is  so  beneficently  revo- 
lutionary as  a  great  fact.  Therefore,  when 
we  discover  just  what  the  Gospel  page 
really  is,  then  old  uses  of  texts  will  stop, 
while  new  and  better  uses  will  begin.  When 
guided  by  this  new  scholarship,  we  see  at 
a  glance  that  they  are  not  clubs  by  which  to 
beat  back  scientists,  nor  chains  with  which 
to  bind  the  free  reason,  nor  materials  of 
which  to  build  dogmatic  creeds.  All  these 
are  misuses  of  texts  which  injure  mankind, 
while  they  misrepresent  the  true  meaning 
and  real  ministry  of  the  Scriptures. 

43 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

But  on  the  other  hand,  new  and  better 
uses  of  texts  spring  up  as  we  more  fully 
understand  the  Gospels.  We  now  find  in 
the  great  sayings  which  they  contain,  not 
fetters  for  the  mind,  but  fuel  for  the  altar 
fires  of  the  heart ;  not  chains  to  bind  opin- 
ion, but  wings  to  lift  the  soul ;  not  material 
out  of  which  to  construct  dogmas,  but 
prophecies  of  the  heart  that  enrich  the  life. 
We  now  study  the  parables  for  inspiration 
rather  than  authority.  We  now  read  the 
Gospels,  not  to  prove  miracles  and  dis- 
credit science,  but  to  warm  our  hearts  to 
heroism,  mercy,  and  self-sacrifice;  and  so 
this  new  use  of  the  Gospels  helps  us  to 
equip  ourselves  with  the  motive  power 
of  a  nobler  life.  We  discover  in 
these  documents,  not  the  report  of 
a  mystical  transaction  that  enables  us 
to  settle  with  a  Shylock  in  the  skies,  but 
something  infinitely  better:  the  dynamic 
record  of  a  sublime  life  that  purifies  us  and 
makes  us  friends  of  God,  the  Father,  by 
making  us  helpful  servants  of  man,  our 
brother. 

The  Gospels,  when  allowed  to  shine  in 

44 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

their  own  light,  which  is  the  light  of  truth 
and  love,  lend  themselves  to  a  new  and 
higher  ministry.  We  ought  to  handle  them 
rationally,  but  reverently,  for  increase  of 
Inner  Life.  These  pages  fire  our  hearts 
with  ennobling  motives,  the  less  we  go  to 
them  for  dogma  and  the  more  we  use  them 
for  communion  with  One  who  went  about 
doing  good,  and  who,  by  so  living,  showed 
us  the  true  way  of  life. 

Let  us  now  give  attention  to  some  of 
the  most  important  discoveries  that  have 
been  made  respecting  the  origin,  relation, 
and  character  of  the  writings  known  to  us 
as  the  Gospels.  This  needs  to  be  done  that 
we  may  prepare  ourselves  to  answer  the 
deeper  question :  In  what  respect  may  we 
consider  the  figure  of  Jesus  really  histori- 
cal? We  must  always  keep  in  mind,  as  has 
been  stated,  that  these  discoveries  have 
been  made  by  giving  careful  attention  to 
the  facts  which  these  documents  themselves 
contain. 

A  few  of  the  most  important  and  gener- 
ally accepted  conclusions  are  these:  The 
first  three  Gospels — the  Synoptics — are  the 

45 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

outcome  of  a  complex  process  that  began 
very  soon  after  the  crucifixion  and  con- 
tinued during  periods  varying  in  length 
for  the  different  Gospels,  from  forty  to 
sixty  years.  An  oral  tradition  giving  the 
life  and  teaching  of  Jesus,  began  to  take 
shape  at  once  after  his  death.  This  was 
the  story  of  the  Master  as  set  forth  by  the 
first  preachers.  It  passed  by  word  of 
mouth  from  apostle  to  convert,  from  one 
church  to  another.  As  the  years  went  by 
and  this  story  was  told  and  retold  in  differ- 
ent places,  the  tradition  assumed  some- 
what divergent  forms  in  these  separate 
localities,  certain  parts  grew  dim,  some 
parts  were  modified  and  embellished,  and 
new  elements  were  added,  borrowed  from 
a  fuller  account.  The  followers  of  Jesus 
did  the  best  that  they  could,  but  even  their 
best  efforts  necessarily  produced  a  story 
with  human  limitations. 

For  a  time,  just  these  personal  memories 
and  oral  reports  respecting  Jesus  and  his 
message  were  all  that  existed.  A  very 
precious  and  carefully  preserved  tradition, 
but  yet  a  tradition,  which,  being  held  in 

46 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

solution,  as  we  may  say,  in  the  minds  of 
the  early  disciples,  was  constantly  subject 
to  changes  of  various  kinds.  We  must 
remember,  too,  that  this  story  was  told, 
not  with  a  mere  prosaic  and  historical 
intent,  but  to  win  converts,  to  communicate 
the  spirit  of  Jesus,  to  make  people  believe 
in  him  as  the  Messiah. 

Then  afterwards  attempts  were  made 
to  commit  this  tradition  to  writing.  One 
of  the  first,  probably  the  very  first,  to  do 
something  of  this  sort  was  Matthew,  whose 
little  work  (which  early  disappeared,  being 
incorporated  in  more  elaborate  documents) 
was  chiefly  composed  of  the  '  '  Sayings '  |  of 
Jesus.  It  probably  underlies  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  as  given  in  our  first  canoni- 
cal Gospel ;  and  in  this  way  it  served  as  the 
nucleus  of  that  Gospel,  and  so  gave  to  the 
fuller  and  later  work  that  we  have  the 
name  of  Matthew.  Then  Mark,  a  compan- 
ion of  Peter,  wrote  out  his  account  of  the 
life  of  Jesus,  paying  little  attention  to  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  but  relating  chiefly  the 
incidents  of  his  wonderful  career.  This 
work  was  probably  very  nearly  our  second 

47 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

Gospel,  which  bears  the  name  of  Mark. 
But  it  is  quite  evident  that  this  first  draft 
of  the  work  lacked  certain  passages  that 
are  now  found  near  the  beginning  and  at 
the  end.  The  date  of  this  original  Mark 
is  approximately  the  year  75  A.  D.  The 
majority  of  scholars  at  the  present  day, 
consider  this  the  oldest  of  our  four  Gos- 
pels. 

A  decade  later,  about  85  A.  D.,  a  man 
of  more  literary  genius  and  with  wider 
information,  sat  down  and  compiled,  out 
of  all  the  materials  at  hand,  another 
Gospel  document,  what  we  know  as  the 
Gospel  of  Luke.  He  fortunately  describes 
his  aim  and  method  at  the  very  beginning 
of  his  work:  "Forasmuch  as  many  have 
taken  in  hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative,  con- 
cerning those  things  which  have  been  fully 
established  among  us,  even  as  they  deliv- 
ered them  unto  us,  which  from  the  begin- 
ning were  eye  witnesses  and  ministers  of 
the  word,  it  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having 
traced  the  course  of  all  things  accurately 
from  the  first,  to  write  unto  thee  in  order, 
most     excellent     Theophilus,     that    thou 

48 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

mightest  know  the  certainty  of  the  things 
that  thou  wast  taught  by  word  of  mouth. ' ' 

From  this  language  it  is  evident  that 
written  accounts  of  Jesus  were  numerous 
when  the  Gospel  of  Luke  was  written.  For 
the  author  states:  "Many  have  taken  in 
hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative.' '  Among 
these  "many"  were  undoubtedly,  Mat- 
thew's "Collection  of  Sayings,"  and 
Mark's  "Narrative;"  to  which  reference 
has  just  been  made.  But  there  were  cer- 
tainly others,  which  early  disappeared.  The 
writer  of  our  Gospel  of  Luke  probably 
used  the  oldest  of  these,  while  he  also 
borrowed  more  or  less  from  oral  tradition. 

Very  near  the  close  of  the  first  century, 
some  other  writer,  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Luke,  constructed  another  docu- 
ment. This  document  bears  the  name  of 
Matthew,  because  it  contains  a  long  col- 
lection of  Jesus 's  Sayings,  that  probably 
came  chiefly  from  the  little  work,  ' '  Oracles 
of  the  Lord,"  which  the  apostle  Matthew 
wrote  fully  a  generation  before  this  final 
edition,  or  finished  narrative,  was  pro- 
duced.   This  last  editor  also  probably  took 

49 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

materials  from  Mark  and  Luke,  and  quite 
likely  borrowed  some  from  other  sources, 
both  oral  and  written.  In  this  way,  the 
Gospel  that  stands  first  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, our  Matthew,  came  into  its  present 
shape  about  the  year  100  A.  D.  In  it  are 
things  that  were  probably  written  as  ear]y 
as  65  A.  D.,  while  there  are  others  that 
were  not  written  until  thirty  years  later. 

These  Gospels,  having  arisen  in  this  man- 
ner, naturally  have  very  much  in  common ; 
they  rest  largely  upon  common  sources; 
hence  their  remarkable  similarities.  But 
there  are  also  marked  differences ;  the  same 
incidents  are  often  differently  described, 
while  there  are  incidents  and  sayings  that 
are  given  in  one  and  not  in  the  others. 
These  facts  show  that  the  final  editors  used 
different  authorities,  as  well  as  common 
sources  of  information.  Where  the  same 
incident  is  given  in  all  three,  the  descrip- 
tions often  vary  as  we  pass  from  the 
earlier  to  the  later  document,  showing  how, 
in  the  process  of  transmission,  certain 
matters  grew  more  and  more  marvelous. 

In  some  cases  we  can  easily  trace  this 

50 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

poetic  enlargement  in  obedience  to  the 
legendary  impulse.  One  example  is  suffi- 
cient illustration:  In  Mark  iii.  10,  we 
read  that  people  pressed  upon  Jesus  to 
touch  him  in  order  to  be  healed,  an  impulse 
not  difficult  to  understand.  There  is  here 
however  no  record  of  cures.  But  in  Mat- 
thew ix.  20,  the  miracle  has  taken  shape: 
a  woman  is  healed  by  touching  the  hem 
of  his  garment.  While  in  Luke  vi.  19, 
(Matthew  xiv.  36,)  the  poetic  impulse  has 
so  expanded  the  incident  that  all  who  touch 
him  are  healed!  Here  we  can  plainly  see 
the  miracle  grow  from  a  nucleus  of  fact. 
These  three  Gospels,  we  must  therefore 
remember,  are  not  biographies  that  were 
at  once  written  on  the  spot  by  eye  wit- 
nesses; but  they  are  rather  composite 
memoirs  which  grew  out  of  the  life  of  the 
primitive  church  in  its  efforts  to  report 
the  character  and  enforce  the  message  of 
Jesus.  All  the  materials  in  them  were  first 
carried  for  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  years 
in  memory,  and  passed  by  word  of  mouth 
as  oral  tradition  from  teacher  to  learner. 
Certain  brief  writings  by  the  apostles,  or 

51 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

those  near  the  Twelve^  came  later  into 
existence.  Just  when  these  appeared,  and 
how  many  were  produced,  we  cannot  tell. 
Then  other  more  elaborate  productions, 
like  Luke  and  our  Matthew  (there  were 
probably  still  others  similar  to  these,  such 
as  the  lost  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,)  grew 
up  under  the  shaping  hands  of  later  edi- 
tors. This  final  editorial  work  was  done 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  century, 
some  two  generations  after  the  death  of 
Jesus. 

The  Fourth  Gospel,  bearing  the  name  of 
John,  stands  somewhat  by  itself.  Modern 
scholars  more  and  more  unite  in  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  not  written  by  the  Apos- 
tle John,  but  by  some  unknown  author  as 
late  as  the  year  115  A.  D.  In  the  first 
three  Gospels,  beside  the  general  purpose 
to  tell  the  story  of  Jesus  and  report  his 
teaching,  the  special  aim  is  to  show  that 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  and  this  intent 
somehow  colors  much  of  the  material,  as 
in  many  passages  like  those  in  Matthew, 
where  we  read :  ' i  That  it  might  be  fulfilled 

52 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet."1  In 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  the  purpose  is  radically 
different  and  distinctly  narrower .  Of 
incidents  there  are  few  and  of  parables 
none.  The  special  aim  is  to  show  that 
Jesus  is  the  incarnation  of  the  Logos,  or 
Wordf  a  term  of  Alexandrian  philosophy, 
widely  popular  in  the  eastern  countries  of 
the  Roman  Empire  during  the  first  century 
of  the  Christian  era.  This  term,  Logos, 
meant  an  intermediate  divine  Principle,  or 
Being,  operating  between  Nature  and  God, 
and  carrying  out  the  creative  purpose. 
The  aim  of  this  philosophical  writer  not 
only  caused  him  to  reshape  his  historical 
material  somewhat,  but  it  also  led  him 
to  add  his  own  speculations  with  a  free 
hand.  And  this  association  of  Jesus  with 
the  theory  of  the  Logos,  of  which  the 
Fourth  Gospel  was  one  literary  expression, 
was  the  beginning  of  the  movement  which 
ended  in  the  deification  of  Jesus. 

The  difference  in  purpose,  just  noted, 


1  Matthew  I.  22;   II.   15;    VIII.    17;    XII.   17;   XIII. 
35;   XXI.  4. 

53 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

may  be  briefly  illustrated  by  reference  to  a 
single  point:  In  the  first  three  Gospels, 
we  start  among  men,  and  Jesus  is  never 
brought  into  association  with  deity  as  a 
part  of  the  Godhead.  However  intimate 
his  fellowship  with  the  Father,  Jesus 
always  remains  on  the  human  level,  con- 
scious of  his  place  among  men  and  of  his 
dependence  upon  God.  In  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  we  start  from  the  depths  of  the 
Divine  Nature,  Jesus  is  represented  as  the 
manifestation  of  the  Logos,  or  creative 
agent  of  the  universe,  and  his  self-asser- 
tion is  here  as  marked  as  his  humility  in 
the  other  Gospels.  From  the  miraculous 
birth  of  Jesus,  as  a  man  to  fulfil  the  Mes- 
sianic Hope — the  position  of  the  Synoptics, 
to  Jesus  as  the  Logos  issuing  out  of  the 
inner  being  of  God  in  order  to  recreate  the 
universe — the  central  proposition  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  is  a  long  step,  and  it 
represents  a  radical  movement  away  from 
the  original  views  of  the  first  disciples: 
a  complete  philosophical  transformation 
of  Christianity. 

SI 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

But  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  not  all  of  one 
piece :  two  currents  run  through  its  pages : 

1.  The  fundamental  historical  tradi- 
tion, the  larger  part  of  which  is  peculiar 
to  this  document,  and  some  of  it  contradic- 
tory to  the  parallel  accounts  in  the  Synop- 
tics. These  differences  are  marked  in  its 
descriptions  of  the  call  of  the  apostles, 
the  Last  Supper,  the  trial  and  crucifixion 
of  Jesus.1  It  is  comparatively  easy  to 
separate  this  older  historical  material 
from  the  philosophical  additions  made  to 
it.  If  we  set  aside  the  passages  that  refer 
directly  or  by  implication  to  the  Logos  or 
Word,  especially  the  opening  paragraph, 
also  the  passages  that  present  Jesus  in 
the  attitude  of  self-assertion  (the  "I" 
passages2),  and  the  long  addresses  in 
Chaps,  xiv.-xvii.,  what  remains  probably 
constitutes  the  document  (so  far  as  here 
preserved),  which  the  final  writer  had  in 


1  Compare  John   I.    35-42   with  Matthew   IV.   18-22. 
Also,    John    XIV.    9-31    with    Matthew    XXVI.    36-46. 

2  Such   as   John   V.    19-26;    VI.   35-40;    VIII.    12-23; 
XII.  46-50. 

55 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

hand  and  enlarged.  This  may  have  come, 
or  a  large  part  of  it,  from  the  Apostle 
John ;  and  so  in  this  way  his  name  passed 
to  the  later  work  which  we  possess.  We 
find  also  that,  in  this  fundamental  docu- 
ment underlying  our  present  Gospel,  the 
figure  portrayed  is  very  nearly  the  human 
Jesus  of  the  Synoptics. 

2.  But  the  philosophical  writer,  to 
whom  we  owe  the  Gospel  of  John  in  its 
present  shape,  set  the  person  of  Jesus,  as 
described  by  the  older  tradition  which  he 
used,  in  the  frame  of  his  philosophical 
doctrine  of  the  Logos.  He  made  what  he 
felt  was  a  true  representation  of  Jesus, 
for  he  believed  Jesus  to  be  the  manifesta- 
tion in  the  flesh  of  the  Logos;  but  in  the 
words  of  Reuss,  his  work  is  "history 
transmuted  into  dogma ;"  a  speculative 
treatise  about  Jesus,  not  a  portraiture  of 
Jesus.  In  other  words,  there  are  two 
figures  here;  the  historical  Jesus,  some- 
what dimmed  by  legend,  in  the  older 
passages;  and  over  and  about  this  human 
figure  is  imposed  the  form  of  the  Logos, 
superhuman,  mystical,  colossal.    The  intro- 

m 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

duction,  the  ^ve  verses  at  the  beginning, 
plainly  describe  the  writer's  purpose.  He 
does  not  start  out  to  write  the  history  of 
a  man.  He  frankly  announces  that  he 
proposes  to  describe  a  philosophy  of 
creation;  and  he  elevates  Jesus  to  the 
chief  place  of  activity,  not  in  a  human 
ministry,  but  in  a  cosmical  drama.  So  that, 
as  Schiirer  put  it:  This  Gospel  "is  far 
more  like  the  drama  of  a  poet  than  the 
work  of  an  historian." 

The  transitions  in  the  Fourth  Gospel 
from  the  historical  tradition  to  the  theo- 
sophical  speculation  are  so  abrupt,  and 
the  two  portions  are  so  unlike  in  quality, 
that  it  is  easy  to  distinguish  them  and 
separate  the  two  classes  of  material.  The 
long  addresses,  in  Chaps,  xiv.-xvii., 
have  no  place  in  the  narrative;  they  are 
in  form  (and  largely  in  quality)  unlike 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  given  in  the 
Synoptics.  They  are  not  the  intuitions  of 
a  prophet,  but  the  mystical  speculations 
of  a  philosopher.  These  discourses  con- 
tain many  noble  sentences,  and  the  author 
aimed  to  reproduce  the  story  and  spirit  of 

;57i 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

Jesus  with  perfect  honesty.  He  wrote 
what  he  felt  to  be  true.  But  we  do  not 
deal  here  at  first  hand  with  the  mind  of 
Jesus.  There  are  undoubtedly  many  true 
glimpses  of  Jesus  in  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
but  we  must  not  go  to  it  for  an  accurate 
account  of  his  life  and  teachings.  As  a 
whole,  it  is  not  the  history  of  a  human 
being,  but  the  dramatization  of  a  philoso- 
phy of  redemption  with  Jesus  acting  the 
part  of  the  Logos. 

This  view  has  now  become  a  widely 
accepted  conclusion  of  modern  scholarship. 
The  gains  to  religion  from  it  are  many. 
But  chief  among  them  is  what  it  does  to 
restore  the  historical  Jesus  to  us.  It 
enables  us  to  strip  off  from  his  figure  the 
obscuring  theosophical  vestments:  the 
Logos  mask  that  disguised  the  actual 
Jesus.  Having  discovered  the  true  charac- 
ter of  this  Gospel,  we  now  easily  distin- 
guish between  its  mystical  notions  and 
its  historical  elements,  and  the  real  man 
Jesus  is  seen  in  new  light.  He  gains  in 
reality  and  attractiveness.  We  no  longer 
hold  him  responsible  for  the  mysticisms  of 

58 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

the  long  addresses.  We  cease  our  vain 
endeavors  to  establish  a  harmony  between 
them  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Gos- 
pel Criticism,  therefore,  helps  us  to  a 
clearer  historical  appreciation  of  Jesus 
by  removing  this  mask  and  showing  us  the 
true  character  behind. 

Now,  what  bearing  have  these  numerous 
and  radical  discoveries  respecting  the  real 
character  of  the  Gospels  upon  our  views  of 
Jesus?  No  treatment  of  Jesus  has 
scientific  validity  or  spiritual  cogency 
except  as  these  facts  are  taken  into 
account.  We  must  make  our  conception  of 
Jesus  square  with  the  facts.  Our  uses  of 
the  Gospels  must  be  adjusted  to  their  true 
character.  The  physicist  who  should 
ignore  the  correlation  of  energy,  and 
the  biologist  who  should  ignore  the 
law  of  evolution,  would  be  doing  just 
what  religious  teachers  are  now  doing 
who  treat  the  Gospels  as  though  nothing 
had  recently  been  discovered  about  them. 
We  must  manfully  face  the  facts  in  reli- 
gion as  everywhere  else.  We  must  dis- 
criminate   our    sources    of    information 

59 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

respecting  Jesus  and  use  these  documents 
for  what  they  really  are. 

The  preacher,  the  parent  and  the  Sun- 
day-school teacher  must  not  ignore  these 
recent  and  important  discoveries  about 
the  Gospels.  If  they  do,  serious  injury 
will  be  done  to  religion.  A  false  dogma 
about  Jesus  cannot  honor  him  or  help  man- 
kind. Our  interpretation  of  that  great 
life,  to  carry  comfort  and  inspiration, 
must  issue  from  a  rational  use  of  these 
writings.  If  we  attribute  to  them  a 
fictitious  character,  if  we  assume  that  they 
are  more  than  what  they  are  and  so  use 
them,  we  shall  be  following  "a  false 
Christ."  Religious  teaching  has  already 
lost  the  note  of  reality  to  a  large  extent 
from  this  cause. 

Nothing  will  drive  young  people  away 
from  the  church  or  foster  indifference  to 
religion  more  effectually  than  the  suspic- 
ion that  they  are  being  trifled  with;  that 
ministers  are  hedging;  that  they  are  not 
frankly  telling  their  congregation  what 
they  have  discovered.  This  suspicion  is 
even  now  at  work  to  the  great  injury  of 

60 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

the  church.  There  is  no  safety  except  in 
facing  the  situation.  No  possible  change 
in  our  conception  of  Jesus  can  work  such 
havoc  to  piety  as  disloyalty  to  truth  and 
resort  to  duplicity.  We  must  not  ignore 
the  crucial  questions:  Have  these  dis- 
coveries made  the  figure  of  Jesus  more 
dim  and  shadowy?  Do  they  leave  any 
basis  for  a  historical  Jesus,  or  do  they 
make  Jesus  more  real  and  attractive? 
What  changes  do  they  make  necessary  in 
our  views  of  Jesus  and  in  our  uses  of  the 
Gospels  themselves? 

One  thing  is  certain,  and  it  really  repre- 
sents a  gain.  It  is  this :  Documents  such 
as  reverent  scholarship  has  shown  these 
Gospels  to  be,  are  not  adequate  proofs  of 
miracles,  and  they  do  not  provide  materials 
for  dogma.  The  reports  which  they  pre- 
sent, however  precious  and  however 
valuable  for  certain  purposes,  are  not  the 
testimonies  of  eyewitnesses  written  down 
at  once  as  the  events  occurred.  Many 
influences  were  active  in  those  days  to 
color,  enlarge,  and  distort  the  tradition, 
and  among  them  these :  (1)  An  ardent  Mes- 

61 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

sianic  Hope  which  led  people  to  think  that 
certain  things  had  actually  happened 
because  it  was  supposed  that  they  had  been 
predicted  by  the  ancient  Hebrew  prophets. 
(2)  A  warmth  of  affection  for  Jesus 
which  inevitably  tended  to  magnify  his 
acts  and  glorify  his  character.  (3)  A 
homiletical  tendency  that  freely  created 
parables  about  him  to  illustrate  his  spirit 
and  convey  his  message,  even  as  he  had 
created  parables  to  set  forth  his  doctrine 
respecting  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

This  picture-making  of  the  friends  of 
Jesus,  who  were  wonder-loving  orientals, 
worked  with  honest  intent,  when,  at  times, 
it  led  them  to  weave  the  then  current 
reports  of  Jesus 's  life  into  poetical 
stories  in  order  to  make  that  life  seem  more 
vivid  and  impressive.  We  must  not  look 
upon  the  writers  and  editors  of  the  Gos- 
pels as  exact  annalists ;  we  must  not  spurn 
them  as  falsifiers;  we  must  read  their 
pages  with  poetic  insight,  warmed  by  their 
ardent  love  for  their  Master,  although  not 
necessarily  accepting  all  the  details  of  their 
story.    We  must  remember  that  the  story 

62 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

was  told,  not  for  its  details  but  for  its 
general  impression. 

There  were  other  changes  introduced 
into  these  records  through  various  mis- 
takes: lapses  of  memory  and  dullness  of 
mind  on  the  part  of  hearer  and  reporter — 
the  gross  ear  sometimes  missing  the  spirit- 
ual meaning.  There  were  also  errors  that 
arose  through  translation  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another.  Jesus  spoke  in  the  pop- 
ular tongue  of  his  people — Aramaic;  we 
have  his  story  in  Greek.  All  these  and  other 
facts  respecting  the  process  by  which  these 
documents  were  produced  make  it  clear 
that  we  do  not  have  in  them  evidence  ade- 
quate to  prove  the  supernatural.  And 
surely  what  was  freely  and  poetically  set 
forth,  in  symbol  and  simile,  as  a  teaching 
of  life,  should  not  be  used  to  construct 
an  elaborate  creed  to  be  imposed  as  a 
finality  upon  the  human  mind.  To 
approach  the  Gospels  for  this  purpose  is 
to  misuse  them. 

So  much  for  the  negative  side,  and  all 
this  seems  very  destructive  at  first  sight. 
The  problem  still  presses  for  some  more 

63 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

positive  solution:  In  the  light  of  this 
new  truth  about  the  Gospels,  does  the 
figure  of  Jesus  grow  brighter  or  become 
dimmer?  Do  the  Gospels,  as  at  present 
understood,  help  us  to  a  clearer  view  of 
Jesus  as  a  real  historical  character?  Is 
there  anything  more  than  shadows  and 
superstitions  really  left !  The  true  answer, 
stated  in  briefest  terms,  seems  to  be  this: 
The  Gospels  do  become,  in  the  hands  of 
modern  scholars,  in  spite  of  all  apparent 
losses,  both  more  interesting  and  more 
instructive ;  and  in  a  very  true  sense  more 
historical. 

The  figure  of  Jesus  becomes  less  mysti- 
cal, but  more  real.  We  may  not  be  so  sure 
as  our  fathers  were  of  some  details,  but  we 
are  more  certain  of  the  large  and  heroic 
outline.  The  Gospels,  which  have  indeed 
become  new  because  seen  in  a  new  light, 
really  help  us  to  a  fuller  understanding 
and  a  warmer  admiration  of  Jesus.  We 
are  using  them  to-day  more  in  harmony 
with  the  purpose  for  which  they  were 
written, — namely,  to  communicate  his  spirit 
and  report  his  message.     They  did  not 

64 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

create  Christianity.  They  were  created 
by  the  church  to  perpetuate  the  image  and 
embody  the  spirit  of  its  founder. 

When  we  cease  to  insist  upon  the  infall- 
ibility of  details,  and  also  cease  to  quote 
the  texts  of  the  Gospels  as  absolute 
authority  for  dogma,  and  when  we  use 
these  writings  solely  for  the  great  ethical 
truths  which  they  contain  and  for  the 
inspiration  of  the  wonderful  life  which 
they  describe,  willing  that  small  matters 
remain  uncertain  so  long  as  the  central 
facts  shine  clear, — then  we  shall  use  them 
aright,  and  then  they  will  become  more 
fruitful  means  of  grace  to  us  than  when 
they  were  read  in  the  old  spirit. 

After  destructive  criticism  has  done  all 
that  it  can,  the  greatness  of  Jesus  in  char- 
acter and  message,  not  only  remains 
untouched,  but  the  loving  appreciation  of 
him  as  guide  and  helper  to  the  divine  life 
grows  stronger.  And  this  is  the  one  point 
of  importance  to  religion.  The  relief  of 
all  anxious  hearts,  who  may  have  feared 
the  results  of  scientific  investigation,  is 
near  at  hand  in  the  discovery  that  our 

.65 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

gains  are  after  all  greater  than  our  losses. 
Some  things  that  once  seemed  essential, 
we  do  lose — legendary  incidents  respecting 
marvels  or  miracles ;  but  the  central  things 
remain — the  supreme  excellence  of  his 
life  and  the  sublime  quality  of  his  teach- 
ings ;  and  these  come  into  new  prominence 
and  larger  power.  For  a  conclusion, 
something  like  this  is  warranted:  Uncer- 
tainty increases  respecting  some  incidents 
of  Jesus  '&  life  as  reported  in  the  Gospels, 
but  the  essential  quality  of  his  character 
shines  in  clearer  light  and  exerts  upon  us 
a  more  helpful  influence.  We  can  now 
make  fewer  positive  assertions  about 
some  of  the  details  of  his  career,  but  we 
can  assert  more  confidently  and  positively 
than  ever  before  his  transcendent  great- 
ness as  a  religious  genius.  This  important 
proposition  will  be  set  forth  more  in 
detail  in  the  following  chapter. 

The  general  conclusion  just  stated  may 
not  confirm  some  of  our  theological  opin- 
ions: this  is  however  of  no  great  impor- 
tance. But  it  does  bring  Jesus  nearer  to 
us   as   a  helpful  personal  influence;   and 

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Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

this  is  the  essential  element  in  Christian- 
ity. The  mystical  halo  about  him  may 
fade,  being  no  more  a  part  of  him  than  is 
the  halo  in  the  sky  a  part  of  the  sun,  but 
the  spiritual  beauty  of  his  character 
increases  and  his  power  over  our  hearts 
in  behalf  of  righteousness  deepens. 

Before  we  make  a  general  application 
of  these  principles,  let  us  briefly  consider 
what  help  they  afford  us  respecting  two 
of  the  most  difficult  problems  in  this  con- 
nection: the  birth  stories  and  the  accounts 
of  the  resurrection.  The  conclusions  of 
Gospel  Criticism  respecting  these  two  sub- 
jects when  first  stated,  seem  painfully 
destructive  to  many  people;  especially 
when  they  are  applied  to  these  matters  in 
a  cold  and  negative  spirit.  When  it  is 
said,  to  discuss  the  birth  stories  first,  that 
we  cannot  now  accept  as  a  literal  record 
of  historical  facts  the  accounts  in  Matthew 
and  Luke,  which  tell  of  a  special  star,  the 
visits  of  angels,  and  the  strange  birth; 
when  we  are  told  that  this  is  poetry,  beau- 
tiful and  interesting  poetry,  but  no  more 
than   poetry, — then   many   a   heart   feels 

67 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

chilled  and  from  many  a  life  the  light  of 
heaven  seems  to  fade.  But  a  little  calm 
reflection  will  show  us  that  what  we  gain 
by  this  conclusion  is  vastly  greater  than 
what  is  lost. 

As  strange  as  the  statement  may  seem 
to  some  when  it  is  first  heard,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  only  as  we  admit  the  poet- 
ical character  of  these  stories  do  they 
become  of  greatest  historic  value  to  us. 
They  most  fully  reveal  the  real  Jesus  when 
freely  read  as  legends.  They  most  truly 
demonstrate  his  greatness  as  a  historical 
figure,  when  we  interpret  them  as  products 
of  the  loving  appreciation  of  his  friends, 
as  it  sought  to  express  itself  in  poetic 
symbols. 

What  do  we  really  lose  and  what  do  we 
really  gain?  Let  us  see.  We  lose  the 
wonder  child  as  a  physical  marvel  impossi- 
ble for  science  to  accept;  we  gain  fresh 
insight  into  the  spiritual  influence  of 
Jesus.  Eeligion  escapes  from  the  bondage 
of  miracle  and  enters  into  new  moral 
power.  We  lose  the  outward  prodigies 
that  violate  natural  law;  we  gain  a  better 

68 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

understanding  of  the  essential  quality  of 
the  Master's  life  which  gave  him,  and  which 
continues  to  give  him,  marvelous  power 
over  human  hearts.  Eeligion  escapes  from 
the  necessity  of  apology,  and  it  is  now  able 
to  appeal  to  the  consciences  of  men  free 
from  the  handicap  of  superstition.  We 
lose  the  song  of  goodwill  as  sung  by 
angels  in  whom  the  modern  mind  has 
ceased  to  believe;  we  gain  a  clear  view  of 
the  impression  which  the  Prophet  of  Naz- 
areth made  upon  his  friends.  He  inspired 
them  to  live  in  the  spirit  of  goodwill. 
Jesus  himself  was  the  supreme  choir-mas- 
ter who  taught  them  to  sing  to  the  wide 
world  the  angelic  song  of  peace  through 
goodwill.  Religion  escapes  from  the  wor- 
ship of  the  mere  letter  and  lays  hold  of 
the  moral  power  which  the  poem  sym- 
bolizes. And  are  there  not  great  gains  in 
this  change  in  our  point  of  view  and  in  our 
use  of  the  Gospel  story? 

Let  us  go  a  little  more  into  particulars. 
The  birth-stories,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke,  were  created 
by  an  impulse  like  that  which  has  produced 

69 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

many  similar  poetical  creations,  which 
have  grown  up  around  great  men;  and 
those  that  cluster  about  the  name  of 
Buddha  especially  illustrate  this  fact. 
They  are  attempts  to  explain,  in  the  sym- 
bolism of  the  age,  the  origin  of  a  life  that 
seemed  to  transcend  the  limits  of  human 
nature.  They  are  trustworthy  testimo- 
nies, not  to  the  reality  of  certain  incidents, 
but  to  the  quality  and  magnitude  of  Jesus  *s 
character.  His  followers  saw  the  beauty 
and  felt  the  power  of  his  life.  They  were 
so  greatly  helped  by  him  that  they  felt 
sure  that  he  had  a  divine  origin.  As  there 
were  no  records  to  guide  them,  they  freely 
created  incidents  to  describe  what  they 
felt  must  have  been  the  origin  of  this 
extraordinary  man. 

The  incidents  that  were  naturally  and 
honestly  invented  by  their  warm  oriental 
hearts,  to  explain  what  they  felt  respect- 
ing Jesus,  reflected  the  spirit  of  his  life: 
this  is  everywhere  the  law  of  the  growth 
of  legends.  These  poetical  incidents  testify 
to  the  profound  impression  which  Jesus 
made   upon   them   and   upon    the   world. 

70 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

These  stories  contain  the  explanation  which 
his  friends  gave  to  an  immense  and  obvious 
fact :  his  wonderful  life  and  influence.  They 
are  inadequate  as  an  explanation,  but 
they  are  invaluable  as  a  revelation  of  his 
character,  and  also  as  evidence  of  their 
loving  appreciation.  They  are  not  records 
of  his  childhood,  but  products  of  his  life; 
not  the  history  of  his  birth,  but  symbols 
of  the  quality  of  his  ministry.  They  are 
the  reflections  of  the  spirit  of  the  words 
and  deeds  of  his  manhood  thrown  by  the 
ardent  fancy  of  his  loving  followers  on 
the  mists  of  uncertainty  enveloping  his 
childhood 

The  reader  of  the  Gospels  is  indeed 
dull  of  heart  who  does  not  feel  the  glow 
of  the  reverence  of  Jesus 's  disciples,  and 
the  warmth  of  their  love,  expressing  them- 
selves through  these  wonder  tales.  But 
duller  of  mind  is  he  who  goes  so  far  astray 
as  to  use  this  poetry  for  prose,  insisting 
that  these  particular  incidents  really  hap- 
pened, and  so  missing  the  precious  lessons 
which  these  stories  do  contain.  They  do 
not  really  tell  the  history  of  Jesus 's  birth, 

71 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

as  has  just  been  stated,  but  they  do  describe 
the  impression  which  he  made  upon  the 
disciples,  and  the  affection  which  he 
aroused  in  them. 

What  is  the  story  of  the  virgin  birth  but 
a  report  of  the  popular  feeling  in  the 
apostolic  time  that  Jesus  was  a  man  so 
supremely  pure  that  he  must  have  had  an 
unusual  origin?  What  is  the  story  that 
attributes  his  paternity  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
but  the  testimony  of  his  disciples  to  the 
spirituality  of  his  life, — an  obvious  fact 
which  they  tried  in  this  way  to  explain? 
What  is  the  story  of  the  guiding  star  but 
an  embodiment  of  their  confidence  in  him 
as  heaven-sent,  because  his  life  was  so 
heavenly?  What  is  the  story  of  the  Magi 
with  their  gifts  but  their  public  declara- 
tion of  an  appreciation  so  large  and  tender 
that  they,  too,  would  give  all  that  they 
possessed  to  do  him  honor?  What  is  the 
story  of  the  angelic  chorus  heard  by  the 
watching  shepherds, — "  Glory  to  God  in 
the  Highest  and  Peace  on  Earth  to  Men  of 
Goodwill," — but  the  description  of  the 
blessed  ministry  which  Jesus  has  actually 

72 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

performed  for  mankind ;  what  the  disciples 
themselves  had  heard  sung  on  the  heights 
of  their  own  being  as  they  commnned  with 
Jesus  and  grew  into  his  spirit? 

The  life  of  Jesus  had  been  preeminently 
a  life  of  goodwill.  Just  because  this  was 
true,  the  song  of  goodwill  grew  up  sponta- 
neously in  their  hearts  and  was  attributed 
to  the  angels.  We  have  here  an  explana- 
tion of  the  origin  and  character  of  Jesus ; 
but  it  is  an  explanation  made  by  reverent 
love,  not  in  logical  statements,  but  in 
poetical  symbols.  We  are  not  obliged  to 
accept  their  explanation.  Indeed,  we  can- 
not. But  their  poem  is  first-class  historical 
material,  if  rightly  used,  being  complete 
proof  of  the  quality  and  extent  of  Jesus 's 
influence  upon  them.  This  is  surely  a  more 
spiritual  and  a  more  scientific  use  of  these 
birth-stories  than  the  old  dogmatists  made 
of  them. 

We  may  apply  the  same  method  of 
interpretation  to  the  accounts  of  the  resur- 
rection. But  only  a  hint  can  here  be  given 
of  the  new  meaning  which  Gospel  Criticism 
finds  in  the  Christophanies,  or  stories  of 

73 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

his  reappearance  after  the  crucifixion, 
and  only  a  bare  reference  can  be  made  to 
the  more  spiritual  uses  to  which  we  may 
now  put  these  passages.  Every  year  the 
conclusion  gains  a  wider  acceptance  among 
religious  scholars  that  these  divergent 
statements  cannot  be  harmonized;  that 
they  do  not  afford  an  adequate  demonstra- 
tion of  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus.1 
Historical  science  and  physical  science 
compel  us  to  surrender  the  old  belief  that 
Jesus 's  body  actually  came  out  of  the  tomb 
and  that  he  lived  again  in  the  flesh  among 
his  friends.  All  this  is  evident.  But  the 
very  fact  that  the  disciples  did  come  to 
believe  in  Jesus  as  risen  from  the  Under- 
world (not  the  grave  but  the  abode 
of  departed  spirits — "raised  from  the 
dead")  and  alive  at  God's  right  hand  is 
the  best  possible  evidence,  not  only  of  the 
grandeur  of  his  character,  but  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul. 
What  survives  all  critical  analysis  and 


1  See     Article    on     "Resurrection"     in     Encyclopaedia 
Biblica,    vol.    IV. 

74 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

scientific  objection  is  the  fact  that  Jesus 
so  lived  that  he  made  his  friends  absolutely 
sure  of  his  immortality  and  their  immor- 
tality. This  is  historical.  We  make  the 
best  use  of  the  story  of  the  resurrection 
when  we  find  in  it  the  illustration  of  that 
spirituality  of  life  which  is  the  root  and 
spring  of  our  hope  of  heaven. 

The  positive  gains  from  Gospel  Criti- 
cism, making  these  writings  more  valuable 
as  evidences  of  Jesus 's  spiritual  greatness 
and  contributing  to  a  clearer  appreciation 
of  him  as  a  historical  character,  have  not 
received  the  attention  that  they  deserve. 
A  general  discussion  of  certain  phases  of 
this  great  problem  will  be  given,  as  has 
already  been  stated,  in  the  next  chapter, 
but  two  important  facts  will  here  be 
briefly  presented. 

The  Messianic  intent  of  the  first  three 
Gospels  is  evident.  They  were  written  to 
prove  that  Jesus  was  the  promised  Mes- 
siah, and  the  incidents  of  his  life  were 
poetically  enlarged  in  this  direction  by 
ardent  belief  in  him  as  the  chosen  Servant 
of  God.    Gospel  Criticism  by  pointing  out 

75 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

this  tendency  and  by  designating  just  what 
embellishments  in  the  records  are  due  to 
it,  enables  us  to  put  aside  these  elements. 
And  as  we  remove  these  disguising  vest- 
ments from  the  figure  of  Jesus,  we  are  able 
to  see  him  more  nearly  as  he  was.     We 
gain  a  more  accurate  historical  view  of 
Jesus  as  we  set  aside  the  less  trustworthy 
parts  in  these  documents.  This  is  precisely 
what  historical  science  does  in  its  treat- 
ment of  all  the  great  characters   of  the 
race.    The  figure  of  King  Alfred  gains  in 
historical  reality  and  our  appreciation  of 
him  increases,  as  historical  students  sepa- 
rate fact  from  fiction  in  our  sources  of 
information. 

What  is  true  of  the  first  three  is  equally 
true  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Indeed,  it  was 
written  with  a  more  conscious  and  delib- 
erate purpose  to  prove  a  thesis:  That 
Jesus  is  the  Logos  incarnate  in  the  flesh 
for  the  redemption  of  man.  When  we 
recognize  this  dogmatic  purpose  at  work 
in  its  pages,  and  when  we  understand  just 
what  the  philosophy  of  the  Logos  was, 
which  the  writer  was  imposing  upon  Jesus, 

76 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

then  it  is  easy  to  lay  our  hands  upon  this 
and  that  statement  in  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
and  say:  This  is  not  a  description  of 
Jesus,  but  only  a  description  of  the  sincere 
belief  of  the  author  about  Jesus.  This 
separation  between  what  is  historical  fact 
and  what  is  speculative  addition  is  the 
object  of  Gospel  Criticism.  The  Gospel 
is  not  discredited  by  the  procedure,  but 
simply  better  understood.  What  is  done 
is  not  destructive  but  constructive.  The 
result  achieved  represents  a  gain  rather 
than  a  loss.  Jesus  becomes  more  real, 
more  lovable,  and  more  helpful,  as  these 
obscuring  notions  about  him  are  put  in 
their  proper  place. 

But  there  is  a  greater  gain  here  than 
the  mere  rescuing  of  the  figure  of  Jesus 
from  the  obscuring  vestments  of  Messianic 
Hope  and  Logos  philosophy,  by  which  he 
was  clothed,  and  to  that  extent  misrepre- 
sented. Gospel  Criticism  shows  us  how 
these  tendencies  worked  and  what  parts 
of  the  story  as  we  have  it  were  produced 
by  these  forces.  But  beyond  this  there  is 
a  still  more  important  truth.     Jesus  was 

77 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

not  the  Messiah  foretold  by  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  but  the  fact  that  the  disciples 
believed  in  him  as  such  is  the  greatest 
possible  evidence  of  his  spiritual  greatness. 
We  cannot  accept  all  that  their  earnest 
faith  in  him  as  the  Messiah  came  to  ascribe 
to  him,  but  that  faith  as  it  shines  across 
the  Gospel  page  is  a  fact  of  supreme 
significance.  We  can  account  for  it,  and 
for  the  moral  revolution  which  it  produced 
in  their  lives,  for  it  lifted  them  toward 
what  he  was,  only  as  we  assume  the  sub- 
lime magnitude  and  spirituality  of  the 
character  of  Jesus. 

Here  is  a  flash  of  light  by  which  Gospel 
Criticism  illuminates  the  person  of  Jesus, 
bringing  him  into  clearer  view  as  a 
supremely  great  and  inspiring  character. 
Their  faith  in  him  as  the  Messiah  demon- 
strates his  messianic  proportions.  And 
the  quality  of  that  faith,  what  it  enabled 
them  to  be  and  do  (all  these  things  stand 
out  clear  in  the  light  of  history), — reveals 
the  quality  and  spirit  of  Jesus,  their 
beloved  Master.  So  that,  while  Gospel 
Criticism  points  here  and  there  and  says: 

78 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

These  things  are  legendary  additions  due 
to  a  strong  belief  in  his  Messiahship;  it 
does  not  stop  here,  but  it  goes  on  to  show 
that  this  very  belief  and  the  poetic  embel- 
lishments which  it  created,  prove,  not  only 
the  greatness  of  Jesus,  but  also  reveal  the 
quality  of  his  greatness.    There  must  have 
been  something   supremely   attractive  in 
Jesus  or  men  never  would  have  come  to 
believe  in  him  as  the  Messiah,  especially 
as  he   disappointed  all  the  popular  and 
worldly  expectations  respecting  the  coming 
Servant  of  God.    Moreover,  their  love  for 
him   as   the   Messiah   would   never   have 
refined  and  ennobled  their  own  hearts,  as 
we  know  that  it  did,  had  not  Jesus  himself 
been  a  refining  and  ennobling  personality. 
What  is  true  of  the  belief  in  Jesus  as 
the  Messiah  is  also  true  of  the  effort  of 
philosophy,   as   displayed  in  the   Fourth 
Gospel,    to    make    him  the  manifestation 
of  the  Logos  among  men.    That  theory  of 
the  Logos  cannot  be  made  to  harmonize 
with  the  real  universe  as  revealed  by  mod- 
ern science.     We  cannot  for  a  moment 
accept  the  statement  that  Jesus  was  the 

79 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

Logos  made  flesh.  It  is  perfectly  clear 
that  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  have  a  dog- 
matic setting  of  the  life  of  Jesus  which  is 
not  historical,  and  which  we  cannot 
accept  as  real. 

But  what  then!  Shall  we  stop  at  this 
conclusion?  If  we  do,  we  shall  miss  the 
chief  lesson  of  Gospel  Criticism  and  the 
supreme  truth  of  greatest  spiritual  value 
to  us.  And  what  is  that  truth?  Just  this : 
The  fact  that  philosophers  felt  impelled 
to  call  Jesus  the  Logos  is  the  very  highest 
tribute  to  his  character.  The  theory  of  the 
Logos  implies  divine  proportions;  that 
men  invested  Jesus  with  this  theory,  proves 
that  to  them  he  seemed  to  have  these  divine 
proportions.  When  they  said:  Jesus  is 
that  Logos, — they  paid  him  superlative 
honors.  Their  theory  of  the  universe  may 
be  erroneous,  but  their  act  reveals  a  loving 
reverence  which  has  great  historic  value. 
It  does  not  prove  Jesus  to  be  the  Logos, 
but  it  does  reveal  and  demonstrate  the 
impression  that  he  had  made  upon  the 
world. 

The    Fourth    Gospel,    is,    therefore,    of 

80 


Jesus  and  Gospel  Criticism 

immense  importance,  not  because  it  gives 
us  a  photographic  or  phonographic  repro- 
duction of  the  career  and  message  of 
Jesus,  what  it  does  not  do,  but  because  it 
shows  both  the  magnitude  and  the  quality 
of  his  life.  The  author  would  not  have  put 
Jesus  on  this  high  throne  of  creativeness, 
had  he  not  found  in  the  story  of  his  life 
spiritual  attributes  which  made  him  seem 
worthy  of  the  part  in  creation  assigned  to 
the  Logos.  The  estimate  may  have  been 
unwarranted,  but  it  was  an  estimate  which 
did  exist.  This  is  the  important  contribu- 
tion of  Gospel  Criticism:  It  does  not  con- 
firm all  the  details  of  the  document  before 
us;  it  decisively  attributes  some  to  mere 
speculation ;  but  it  goes  back  of  the  Gospel 
page  to  the  motive  of  the  author  who 
wrote  it;  and  in  this  way  it  finds  new  and 
irresistible  proof  of  the  spiritual  greatness 
of  the  Master. 


81 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 


TEE  SUPREME  LOVE  OF  JE8U8 

This  was  the  greatness  of  Jesus  Christ.  Re  felt, 
as  no  other  felt,  a  union  of  mind  with  the  human  race, 
felt  that  all  had  a  spark  of  that  same  intellectual  and 
immortal  flame  which  dwelt  in  him.  I  insist  on  this 
view  of  his  character,  not  only  to  encourage  us  to  aspire 
after  a  likeness  to  Jesus,  I  consider  it  as  peculiarly 
fitted  to  call  forth  love  toward  him.  If  I  regard  Jesus 
as  an  august  stranger,  belonging  to  an  entirely  different 
class  of  existence  from  myself,  having  no  common 
thoughts  or  feelings  with  me,  and  looking  down  upon 
me  with  only  such  a  sympathy  as  I  have  with  an 
inferior  animal,  I  should  regard  him  with  a  vague 
awe;  but  the  immeasurable  space  between  us  would 
place  him  beyond  friendship  and  affection.  But  when 
I  feel  that  all  minds  form  one  family,  that  I  have  the 
same  nature  with  Jesus,  and  that  he  came  to  communi- 
cate to  me,  by  his  teaching,  example,  and  intercession, 
his  own  mind,  to  bring  me  into  communion  with  what 
was  sublimest,  purest,  happiest  in  himself,  then  I  can 
love  him  as  I  love  no  other  being,  excepting  only  him 
who  is  the  Father  alike  of  Christ  and  of  the  Christian. 

William  Ellery  Channing. 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

During  the  past  few  years  the  scientific 
investigations  of  many  Biblical  scholars 
have  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  Gospels;  and  some  of  these 
important  facts  have  been  stated  in  the 
previous  chapter.  During  the  next  few 
years  a  scientific  appreciation  of  these 
facts  will  lead  us  to  a  clearer  understand- 
ing of  the  character  of  Jesus  and  a  more 
spiritual  use  of  the  story  of  his  life.  At 
present  there  is  much  neglect  of  the  Gos- 
pels and  much  confusion  respecting  the 
person  and  ministry  of  Jesus. 

These  statements  may  seem  strange  and 
untrue  to  many  persons.  And  in  opposi- 
tion it  may  be  asked:  Are  not  millions 
of  children  and  young  people  studying  the 
New  Testament  literature  in  our  Sunday- 
schools?  Very  true.  But  all  thoughtful 
educators  testify  that  young  people  are 
becoming  more  and  more  ignorant  of  the 

85 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

Bible.  And  even  if  Scripture  is  extensive- 
ly studied,  in  a  way,  these  conclusions  of 
Gospel  Criticism  are,  unfortunately,  gen- 
erally ignored  in  the  work  of  religious 
education.  The  church  is  far  more  willing 
to  accept  modern  views  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment than  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
common  also  to  find  the  minister  in  the 
pulpit  advocating  modern  views  of  the 
Bible  while  the  Sunday-school  of  the  same 
church  is  given  over  to  traditional  dogma- 
tism. Moreover,  those  who  accept  these 
discoveries  of  Biblical  science  are  very 
slow  to  apply  them  and  make  the  necessary 
reconstruction  of  religious  thought,  espec- 
ially in  the  training  of  the  young. 

As  long  as  this  condition  lasts  the  new 
interest  in  Jesus  will  not  appear.  And 
deep,  vital  interest  in  Jesus  is  far  less 
common  than  many  suppose.  It  will  not 
grow  into  a  commanding  enthusiasm  until 
the  church  takes  a  more  scientific  attitude 
toward  the  Gospels.  Not  until  a  more 
rational  attitude  is  taken  toward  Jesus. 
Then  a  rebirth  of  Christianity  will  come. 
There  are  some  hopeful  signs  which  indi- 
cate the  approach  of  this  great  event! 

86 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

We  may  therefore  confidently  expect 
that  in  time,  we  shall  reinterpret  the 
evangelical  material  and  reapply  it  to 
human  life.  We  shall  find  new  instruction 
in  that  material  and  new  inspiration  in 
the  life  of  Jesus.  It  is  certain  that  Jesus 
will  not  fade  from  history  nor  will  he  cease 
to  influence  the  world;  but  he  will  become 
historical  in  a  new  and  grander  sense, 
while  his  influence  will  become  more  per- 
sonal and  more  ethical. 

Let  us  briefly  consider  the  direction  and 
method  of  that  progress  in  religious 
thought  which  will  issue  from  a  new  inter- 
pretation of  the  Gospels.  We  may  well 
begin  with  a  reference  to  the  " cures' '  re- 
ported to  have  been  performed  by  Jesus. 
The  one  fact  which  shines  through  all  the 
pages  of  the  Gospels  is  this,  the  curative 
influence  of  Jesus ;  this  fact  is  fundamental 
in  these  records.  However  criticism  may 
cast  doubt  upon  the  accounts  of  particular 
"miracles  of  healing ;"  whatever  position 
we  may  take  under  the  leadership  of  science 
in  opposition  to  ' '  supernatural  cures, ' '  still 
it  is  evident  that  Jesus  did  exercise  a 

87 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

wonderful  healing  power  upon  persons  sick 
in  hody  and  morbid  in  mind.  It  is  not 
strange  that  he  should  have  done  this.  It 
is  just  what  we  might  expect.  When  we 
call  to  mind  what  constantly  happens  about 
us;  when  we  consider  the  mechanism  and 
relation  of  body  and  soul;  and  when  we 
remember  what  peculiar  conditions  then 
existed,  it  is  entirely  rational  to  assume 
that  a  great  spiritual  genius  would  work 
cures  upon  the  sick  people  about  him. 

The  Gospels  do  not  enable  us  to  tell  just 
what  did  really  happen  in  certain  cases, — 
the  original  fact  is  beyond  recovery,  for 
the  record  is,  in  many  instances,  very  brief 
and  imperfect,  while  the  enlargement  of 
legend  often  obscures  the  actual  occur- 
rence. But  an  immense  personality  shines 
through,  even  if  the  incidents  are  dim.  The 
effects  produced,  however  enlarged  by 
legend,  report  and  reveal  a  great  character. 
And  the  moral  quality  of  that  character 
is  more  evident  than  the  details  of  the 
cures.  The  ethical  superiority  is  revealed 
in  the  restraint  which  Jesus  put  upon  these 
"powers"  which  he  possessed.    He  did  not 

88 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

use  them  to  secure  compensation,  to  obtain 
notoriety,  to  enforce  his  claims,  to  give 
authority  to  his  message,  or  to  win  dis- 
ciples. ' '  Go  tell  no  man, ' '  was  his  frequent 
command.  He  also  seemed  to  understand 
that  the  curative  influence  was  as  much 
in  the  psychic  condition,  in  the  expectancy 
of  the  patient,  as  in  himself,  for  he  said 
to  the  woman :  "  Thy  faith  (not  my  power) 
hath  made  thee  whole." 

The  general  conclusion  which  we  reach 
is  this:  We  to-day  admit  frankly  that  we 
cannot  tell  just  what  actually  happened  in 
many  of  these  cases,  and  what  seems 
miraculous  is  evidently  due  to  legend  or 
would  be  easily  explained  if  we  had  a 
complete  account.  And  yet,  the  facts  all 
point  to  a  character  of  supreme  sanity  and 
vast  spiritual  nobility. 

One  needs  a  clear  eye  and  a  firm  hand 
in  order  wisely  to  treat  this  difficult  and 
delicate  subject.  It  is  easy  to  overlook  the 
central  truth  and  miss  the  spiritual  inspira- 
tion. The  dogmatist  aggressively  contends 
for  the  supernaturalism  apparently  re- 
corded in  these  accounts,  seeing  nothing 

89 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

of  the  character  shining  through  and 
alienating  all  men  of  scientific  spirit  who 
listen.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  easy  to  say 
that  Jesus  was  merely  another  healer.  But 
this  view  stops  short  with  one  of  the  minor 
incidents  of  his  career  upon  which  he  him- 
self laid  no  emphasis.  If  he  had  been  just 
this  and  nothing  more,  no  great  spiritual 
movement  would  have  flowed  from  his 
word  and  work.  If  this  had  been  all,  he 
would  have  been  the  sensation  of  the  day. 
He  would  not  have  been  the  Master  of  the 
ages. 

Some  dismiss  the  problem  by  saying: 
These  are  only  legends  to  which  sensible 
men  need  give  no  attention.  But  the  halo 
in  the  sky  means  a  great  sun  beyond. 
Legendary  accounts?  Yes  to  some  extent. 
But  such  poetry  only  concerns  itself  with 
very  great  personages.  Moreover,  the 
ethical  spirit  working  in  the  legend  reveals 
the  sublime  character  behind.  So  that  if 
rightly  handled  these  stories  of  healing, 
historical  after  all  in  a  very  real  sense, 
demonstrate  the  magnitude  and  quality  of 
Jesus 's  manhood,  although  they  do  not, 

90 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

with  fulness  or  accuracy,  narrate  the  pre- 
cise incidents  of  his  life. 

The  attitude  of  Jesus  to  the  Messianic 
Hope  illustrates  the  same  important  truth. 
This  Hope  was,  in  his  day,  a  varied,  fluct- 
uating, but  ardent  political  passion  with 
marked  religious  elements.  It  was  the 
Time-Spirit  of  the  Jews  of  that  age.  It  is 
always  true  that  a  man  to  become  an 
inspiring  leader  must  be  the  oracle  or  agent 
of  a  powerful  popular  sentiment.  It  is 
some  such  widespread  enthusiasm  that  is 
the  throne  from  which  he  exercises  author- 
ity. Whoever  should  be  able  to  impress 
and  liberate  the  Jews  in  that  age  would 
have  to  relate  himself  to  this  ideal  and 
utilize  the  power  at  work  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people  under  the  banner  of  this  great 
expectation. 

A  great  man  could  no  more  arise  and 
labor  successfully  in  Palestine  two  thou- 
sand years  ago  and  ignore  the  Messianic 
Hope  than  could  a  Lincoln  ignore  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  of  his  day.  In  both  cases 
the  overmastering  popular  sentiment  pro- 
vided the  platform  on  which  to  stand  and 

91 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

the  motive  power  hy  which  to  conquer. 
It  was  inevitable  that  Jesus  should  asso- 
ciate himself  with  the  popular  desire  for 
a  Deliverer.  That  he  felt  himself  to  be  the 
Messiah  of  Israel  is  evident.  We  frankly 
acknowledge  that  we  cannot  trace  the 
origin  and  growth  of  this  conviction  in  his 
mind.  We  cannot  explain  all  that  he  meant 
by  the  term  or  describe  all  that  he  believed 
about  himself  in  this  connection.  The 
modern  scholar  cannot  indulge,  like  his 
predecessors,  in  definite  assertions  and 
precise  descriptions  at  this  point.  The 
records  are  so  imperfect  that  great  uncer- 
tainty will  always  surround  the  matter. 

But  about  one  thing — and  that  is  the  one 
thing  of  most  importance — there  is  no 
uncertainty :  Jesus  reinterpreted  the  Mes- 
sianic Hope,  and  gave  it  a  supremely  ethical 
character.  He  touched  what  was  a  tempo- 
rary political  passion,  and  it  became  a 
permanent  spiritual  influence.  He  had  the 
genius  and  ability  to  lay  hold  of  this 
popular  sentiment,  and  reshape,  refine,  and 
reapply  it.  He  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah, 
but  in  a  new:  and  higher  sense.    He  purified 

92 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

the  Hope  and  gave  it  a  spiritual  quality 
and  a  universal  application.  He  did  not 
fulfill  the  old  Hebrew  predictions — (about 
which  great  misconceptions  still  survive  in 
the  popular  mind) ;  he  transcended  them, 
being  a  Messiah  after  a  new  and  original 
pattern. 

The  divinity  of  Jesus  is  not  to  be  proved, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  old  apologists,  by 
showing  that  he  was  just  what  Isaiah  and 
the  other  Hebrew  prophets  had  foretold 
respecting  a  future  Messiah.  His  real 
divinity  is  revealed  in  the  fact  that  he  was 
vastly  superior  to  the  ancient  ideals.  He 
said  in  substance:  "I  am  your  Messiah, 
not  to  drive  out  the  Eomans  from  the  land, 
but  to  drive  out  sins  from  your  hearts; 
not  to  establish  a  political  organization,  but 
to  spread  abroad  a  new  spirit  of  life;  not 
to  subjugate  your  enemies,  but  to  teach  the 
forgiveness  of  enemies;  not  to  enable  you 
to  rule,  but  to  teach  you  to  serve.  I  am 
the  Messiah,  but  my  mission  is  to  show 
you  by  my  own  death  how  to  save  your  life 
by  losing  it!  I  bring  you  a  cross,  not  a 
sceptre;  a  yoke  to  bear,  not  a  throne  to 

93 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

occupy.  I  come  to  establish  an  eternal 
kingdom  of  love."  However  scant  and 
imperfect  the  records,  this  doctrine  of 
Jesus  respecting  his  mission  is  perfectly 
clear  and  historical,  and  just  this  is  all  that 
is  really  valuable  and  essential. 

The  important  contribution  of  Gospel 
Criticism  to  vital  Christianity  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  makes  us  surer  than  ever  before 
of  the  great  central  truth  just  stated,  while 
it  relieves  us  at  the  same  time  of  many 
perplexities  inherent  in  the  old  view  of 
verbal  infallibility.  We  cease  to  care  for 
accuracy  of  mere  details,  because  we  hold 
firmly  in  hand  the  supreme  moral  excel- 
lence of  Jesus. 

Moreover,  if  it  be  true  that  Jesus  really 
expected  to  return  in  a  short  time  after  his 
death  to  set  up  a  new  and  holy  form  of 
society,  his  mistake  about  this  matter  does 
not  discredit  his  moral  teaching.  The  ethics 
of  Plato  are  not  discredited  by  his  erro- 
neous views  about  the  solar  system.  The 
Gospels  fail  to  make  entirely  clear  Jesus 's 
position  at  this  point,  but  it  is  clear 
that  he  did  not  lose  his  hold,  whatever  his 

94 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

opinion  on  this  subject  may  have  been, 
upon  the  great  central  truths  of  the 
spiritual  life.  His  authority  respecting 
the  cosmos  may  fade,  but  his  authority 
respecting  the  primacy  of  love  does  not 
lessen ! 

The  world  is  fortunately  growing  into  a 
keener  appreciation  of  the  intellectual 
greatness  of  Jesus.  But  here,  as  elsewhere, 
there  is  great  uncertainty  respecting  some 
matters,  together  with  a  certainty  equally 
great  respecting  others.  How  Jesus 
obtained  his  education,  how  much  Jewish 
"learning' '  he  possessed,  whether  he  really 
held  the  popular  views  of  his  time  about 
disease  and  demoniacal  possession, — on 
these  and  other  similar  subjects  it  is  im- 
possible to  reach  any  clear  and  positive 
conclusions. 

There  is,  however,  abundant  evidence 
to  show  that  Jesus  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able mental  powers.  He  certainly  knew 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  thoroughly.  He 
could  not  only  quote  the  Old  Testament 
freely,  but  he  could  use  its  texts  with  great 
insight  and  independence.    His  method  of 

95 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

handling  Scripture  was  masterful.  He  was 
familiar  with  its  words,  but  he  was  a  free 
interpreter  of  them;  reverent  toward  its 
teachings,  but  no  slave  to  its  texts;  never 
indulging  in  fanciful  allegory  and  never 
resorting  to  mere  verbal  dogmatism;  find- 
ing in  these  writings  illustration  and  inspi- 
ration, but  never  allowing  them  to  over- 
master his  own  reason  and  conscience. 

With  the  genius  of  a  poet  and  the  insight 
of  a  philosopher,  Jesus  distinguished  be- 
tween kernel  and  husk  in  the  precepts  of 
the  Law  and  the  pleadings  of  the  Prophets ; 
and  by  an  interpretation  all  his  own,  he  set 
forth  with  beauty  and  power  the  essential 
spiritual  truths  of  Scripture.  His  vast 
superiority  as  an  interpreter,  his  intel- 
lectual greatness  as  a  teacher,  are  convinc- 
ingly shown  when  we  turn  from  him  to  the 
work  of  the  rabbis  as  seen  in  the  Talmud; 
or  even  to  the  labored  arguments  of  the 
Apostle  Paul. 

The  freedom  with  which  Jesus  moved 
among  men  and  handled  deep  and  difficult 
subjects,  his  surprising  readiness  on  all 
occasions,  and  his  mastery  of  every  prob- 

96 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

lem  of  practical  ethics  presented, — all  these 
things  reveal  an  acuteness  and  comprehen- 
siveness of  thought  to  which  the  world  as 
yet  has  given  but  inadequate  recognition. 
He  illustrates  independence  without  singu- 
larity, force  without  arrogance,  originality 
without  exaggeration,  capacity  of  defense 
without  petulence,  a  popular  gift  free  from 
artifice.  He  moves  among  enemies  without 
fear,  and  handles  difficulties  without  effort 
as  one  conscious  of  abundant  strength. 
He  holds  an  even  balance  in  conduct  and 
teaching,  as  only  a  giant  can  do ;  unworldly 
but  not  an  ascetic;  a  lightning  flash  that 
withers  sin,  and  a  boundless  sympathy  that 
wins  sinners;  an  undying  enthusiasm,  but 
never  running  to  waste  in  foolish  and 
visionary  enterprise. 

The  intellectual  greatness  of  Jesus  is 
also  clearly  seen  in  two  sets  of  circum- 
stances. (1)  The  way  in  which  he  meets 
his  enemies;  the  quick  penetration  to  the 
working  of  their  minds,  the  clear  compre- 
hension of  the  problem  at  issue,  the  firm 
grasp  upon  the  whole  situation  before  him ; 
the  rapidity  of  decision  respecting  his  own 

97 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

defense,  the  effective  popular  quality  of  his 
treatment  of  the  matter  in  dispute,  the  high 
level  upon  which  he  always  plants  himself. 

(2)  Jesus  was  equally  remarkable  in 
another  direction.  The  casual  remarks 
which  he  dropped  on  apparently  trivial 
occasions,  he  made  so  weighty  with  the 
wisdom  of  life  that  they  remain  influential 
guides  to  conduct.  Taken  all  in  all,  we 
to-day  can  find  or  make  no  better  rules  of 
life  than  those  described  in  his  teachings. 
He  laid  hold  of  the  universal  element  in  the 
passing  incident.  What  he  said  to  the  rich 
young  man:  "One  thing  thou  lackest," 
and  to  the  accusers  of  the  wayward  woman : 
"He  that  is  without  sin  let  him  cast  the 
first  stone ;"  his  reference  to  the  children, 
and  to  the  widow  and  her  offering — these 
illustrate  his  wonderful  superiority  in  this 
respect.  Here  we  deal  with  transcendent 
intellectual  ability  as  well  as  remarkable 
moral  insight. 

We  have  in  the  Gospels  some  two  hundred 
"sayings,"  and  about  twenty-five  " para- 
bles.''  Gospel  Criticism  shows  us  that,  in 
all  probability,  some  of  these  teachings 

,98. 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

have  undergone  certain  modifications,  and 
a  few  have  been  so  changed  that  the 
thought  of  Jesus  is  probably  obscured  or 
lost.  In  the  process  of  oral  transmission 
and  editorial  revision  some  misunderstand- 
ings naturally  arose.  But  the  record  is 
undoubtedly  substantially  accurate. 

The  significant  fact  is  that  we  have  this 
large  body  of  teachings  at  all.  It  is  often 
said,  in  a  tone  that  implies  discredit  or 
uncertainty :  Jesus  himself  wrote  nothing. 
Very  true ;  he  wrote  nothing  on  parchment. 
But  to  have  done  that  would  have  been  an 
easy  matter.  What  he  did  accomplish  was 
vastly  greater  and  incomparably  more 
significant.  He  impressed  these  spiritual 
truths  so  powerfully  upon  the  hearts  of 

men  that  they  fixed  themselves  there  as 
seeds  of  life.  It  is  easy  enough  simply  to 
say  things,  but  to  say  things  so  that  people 
make  our  words  a  rule  of  life, — that  is  the 
evidence  and  test  of  greatness.  The  say- 
ings set  forth  by  Jesus  were  indeed  seeds 
of  life,  so  vital  with  truth,  and  planted  with 
such  dynamic  power  in  the  hearts  of 
people,  that  they  became  authoritative  com- 

99 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

mandments.  They  not  only  stuck  in  mem- 
ory, they  became  sources  of  a  new  life. 

Here  is  the  remarkable  fact:  That  his 
teachings  touch  the  centers  of  life  and 
remain  there  with  permanent  regenerative 
power.  They  were  treasured  by  people  in 
their  hearts  as  a  precious  and  persuasive 
guide  to  conduct.  Jesus  put  them  into  the 
human  soul  in  such  a  way  that  the  hearers 
said :  This  is  what  I  must  be !  Each  word 
has  been  a  storage  battery  of  inexhaustible 
spiritual  vitality.  This  could  be  possible 
only  as  these  teachings  were  set  forth  by 
a  transcendent  personality.  They  were 
first  lived  out  in  the  lives  of  his  disciples 
and  then  written  out  in  the  Gospels.  They 
do  not  make  clear  the  incidents  of  his  daily 
life,  but  they  do  make  clear  the  quality  and 
spirit  and  power  of  that  life. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  truth  of  this  argu- 
ment, let  him  go  out  some  morning  and  see 
if  he  can  say  one  word  to  his  friends  that 
will  be  so  strong,  so  pure,  so  noble,  that 
they  will  enshrine  it  in  their  hearts  and 
make  it  a  rule  of  life !  He  will  soon  realize 
the  difficulty  of  saying  anything  that  will 

100 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

even  be  remembered,  much  less  put  into 
life. 

The  arrow  deeply  imbedded  in  the  forest 
tree  proves  the  strength  of  the  arm  which 
drew  the  bow  that  put  it  there.  So  the 
many  sayings  of  Jesus,  imbedded  in  the 
hearts  of  men  and  abiding  there  as  ideals 
and  motives  of  life,  prove  the  vast  spiritual 
power  of  the  teacher  who  spoke  them. 
They  were,  indeed,  like  winged  arrows 
dipped  in  love,  flying  forth  from  a  heart 
of  love,  and  piercing  other  hearts  to  make 
them  loving. 

The  French  voyageurs  who  first  ascended 
the  St.  Lawrence  River  had  a  remarkably 
interesting  experience.  The  unbroken 
forest  came  down  to  the  water's  edge  on 
both  sides.  Every  stroke  of  their  oars 
carried  them  near  to  dangerous  rocks 
hidden  in  the  stream  or  to  more  dangerous 
savages  lurking  in  the  underbrush.  Every 
mile  laboriously  gained  against  the  swift 
current  opened  before  them  a  new  land- 
scape. What  charm  of  discovery!  What 
excitement  of  constant  peril !  What  allur- 
ing prospects  far  ahead !  What  fascinating 

101 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

anticipation  respecting  the  unexplored 
regions  at  the  head  waters  of  the  mighty 
River ! 

And  yet,  though  their  eyes  had  not  seen 
that  country  and  no  satisfactory  descrip- 
tion of  it  had  been  given  them,  they  could 
be  sure  of  some  of  its  important  features 
and  characteristics.  There  must  be  a  far- 
spread  watershed  to  make  such  a  river 
possible.  It  must  be  forest-clad  because 
the  water  was  clear  and  fresh.  There  must 
be  a  great  lake,  or  several  lakes,  to  serve 
as  equalizing  reservoirs,  because  the  banks 
indicated  little  variation  in  the  volume  of 
the  stream.  All  this  and  more  was  perfect- 
ly evident. 

If  we  locate  ourselves  anywhere  in  the 
old  Roman  empire  during  the  second  quar- 
ter of  the  second  century,  we  shall  realize 
that  a  spiritual  stream  is  sweeping  past 
us.  It  runs  through  the  home  and  puri- 
fies and  blesses  it,  by  bringing  parents 
into  nobler  relations  with  each  other  and 
children  under  a  tender  watch-care.  It 
runs  through  the  neighborhood,  and  human 
lives  are  knit  together  in  a  new  brother- 

102 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

hood  of  service.  It  runs  through  the 
market  place,  and  buyer  and  seller  treat 
each  other  with  new  consideration.  It  runs 
through  the  temples  of  the  old  gods,  and 
it  sweeps  people  away  from  the  bloody 
altars ;  they  drop  their  sacrifices  and  group 
themselves  in  a  new  worship,  where  men 
and  women,  bound  in  the  bonds  of  a  com- 
mon love,  praise  a  Father  who  is  love.  It 
runs  through  shop  and  field,  and  leads  to 
a  new  conduct  between  master  and  slave. 
It  runs  through  the  great  company  gath- 
ered to  witness  the  cruelties  of  the  arena, 
and  here  and  there  men  rise  up  and  go 
out,  vowing  never  again  to  look  upon  such 
a  brutal  show.  It  runs  through  the  schools 
of  the  philosophers,  and  speculation  cen- 
ters on  a  new  object  and  gives  a  more 
spiritual  interpretation  to  the  universe. 
Wherever  it  runs  through  human  hearts, 
it  emancipates  from  selfishness  and  enrich- 
es with  holier  ideals  and  brighter  hopes. 
The  stream  is  there  in  the  clear  light 
of  history;  a  powerful  and  purifying  cur- 
rent. It  is  a  tidal  wave  of  personal  influ- 
ence.     Other    such    streams    have    swept 

103 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

through  human  society,  but  this  is  pecu- 
liarly powerful  and  regenerative.  Not 
everything  in  it  comes  from  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth; tributaries  have  flowed  in  by  the 
way.  But  Jesus  really  created  the  current, 
he  gave  it  momentum  and  character. 

We  may  set  aside  the  Gospels,  and  yet 
the  wide  spread  and  wonderful  phenome- 
non here  described  is  itself  enough  to  con- 
vince us  that  back  there  in  Galilee  a 
supreme  life  was  lived  that  stirred  men 
with  love  and  hope  as  no  one  else  has  done. 

Just  as  the  explorers  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
river  could  be  absolutely  sure  of  many 
features  of  the  inland  region,  so  we  may 
be  absolutely  sure  of  the  spiritual  quality 
and  vast  personality  of  Jesus  from  the 
vital  currents  at  work  in  that  old  world 
and  associated  with  his  name.  While  some 
details  of  the  life  story  have  become  in 
recent  years  less  certain,  Jesus  himself 
becomes  really  more  historical  than  ever 
before.  Though  less  sure  of  some  incidents 
of  the  story,  we  are  a  hundredfold  more 
sure  of  the  ethical  quality  and  spiritual 
grandeur  of  his  character.    Any  scientific 

104 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

explanation  of  the  facts  necessitates  this 
conclusion.  And  this  is  the  only  vital  con- 
cern of  religion. 

But  here  an  objection  is  raised  by  some 
persons  to  the  views  just  presented.  We 
are  told,  by  many  earnest  but  conservative 
people,  that  the  merely  Historical  Jesus 
is  too  vague  and  distant  a  figure  to  give 
mankind  the  spiritual  help  that  is  needed. 
These  persons  admit  that  it  is  well  to  pay 
some  attention  to  the  facts  of  his  human 
career  and  to  trace  his  influence  in  history 
as  a  great  character;  but  this  alone  is  not 
sufficient.  They  insist  that  religion  must 
have  a  Celestial  Christ,  not  only  as  a  per- 
sonal friend  who  is  constantly  present  to 
guide,  inspire,  and  comfort,  but  as  a  media- 
tor who  supernaturally  and  instantaneous- 
ly rescues  the  sinner  from  damnation  and 
opens  before  him  the  door  of  heaven.  The 
Jesus  of  Gospel  Criticism,  however  inter- 
esting as  a  human  being,  is  nevertheless  a 
mere  man;  and  as  a  mere  man  he  can  never 
redeem  a  sinful  world.  The  Historical 
Jesus  is,  they  contend,  a  shadowy  figure, 
who  cannot  stir  the  heart  to  repentance  or 

105 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

equip  the  soul  with  saving  faith.  To  ignore 
the  celestial  ministry  of  Jesus  in  mediat- 
ing between  offended  Justice  and  fallen 
man,  to  leave  out  the  sacrificial  element, 
is  to  rob  the  story  of  Christ  of  all  redemp- 
tive power. 

The  sacrificial  interpretation  of  Jesus 's 
life,  has,  indeed,  occupied  a  prominent 
place  in  Christian  theology.  The  thoughts 
of  many  even  now  never  go  beyond  "the 
sacrificial  Christ."  That  the  Son  of  God 
should  come  down  from  heaven  and  die  to 
rescue  sinners  from  eternal  misery,  that 
he  should  suffer  infinite  agony  on  the  cross 
"to  enable  God  to  be  just  and  justify  the 
ungodly,"  this  is  certainly  a  story  that 
appeals  powerfully  to  human  hearts.  This 
doctrine  of  the  cross,  from  one  point  of 
view  flashes  with  the  wrath  of  God  and 
strikes  terror  to  the  hearts  of  sinners,  but 
from  the  other  side  it  shines  with  infinite 
pity  and  opens  to  terrified  sinners  a 
glorious  highway  into  heaven. 

The  attractiveness  of  this  doctrine  to 
many  minds  is  evident.  But  earnest  souls 
are  asking:    Is  this  the  story  of  Jesus 

106 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

which  the  Gospels  actually  tell  when  illumi- 
nated by  the  discoveries  of  modern  scholar- 
ship? Is  this  the  view  of  Jesus  that  fits 
into  the  universe  that  science  reveals!  Is 
this  the  thought  of  Jesus  that  brings  him 
most  powerfully  into  human  life  as  a 
creative  ethical  influence!  In  fact,  is  this 
the  true  appreciation  of  the  actual  Jesus 
in  the  light  of  the  discoveries  made  respect- 
ing Nature  and  the  Gospels?  These  deep 
questions  are  now  up  for  discussion.  They 
must  be  treated  with  tender  reverence, 
perfect  sincerity,  and  scientific  precision. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  our  apprecia- 
tion of  Jesus  must  conform  to  the  facts  of 
the  universe ;  for  these  are  more  authorita- 
tive than  statements  in  the  Gospels.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  this  sacrificial 
interpretation  of  Jesus  implies  views  of 
nature  and  humanity  which  are  unthinkable 
by  a  mind  informed  and  trained  in  modern 
science.  We  cannot  fit  such  a  picture  of 
Jesus  into  the  cosmos  which  science  re- 
veals. The  processes  of  human  evolution, 
the  methods  of  history,  the  laws  of  psychol- 
ogy stand  squarely  against  the  traditional 

107 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

dogma.  The  wrath  of  God,  the  eternity 
of  punishment,  the  transfer  of  guilt  and 
merit,  the  efficacy  of  faith  to  remove  the 
consequences  of  sin,  the  necessity  of  pro- 
pitiating God,  the  escape  from  the  penal- 
ties of  wrong  doing  under  cover  of  the 
merits  of  another, — nothing  could  be  more 
foreign  to  cosmic  order  or  more  contrary 
to  ethical  law,  as  now  understood,  than 
these  assumptions,  which  are  central  in  the 
traditional,  or  sacrificial  interpretation  of 
Jesus. 

But  the  chief  objection  to  the  sacrificial 
interpretation  of  Jesus 's  life  comes  from 
the  direction  of  Biblical  scholarship.  The 
traditional  doctrine  is  not  an  appreciation 
of  Jesus  based  upon  the  language  of  the 
Gospels.  The  more  fully  we  understand 
the  facts  to  which  attention  has  just  been 
drawn,  the  more  we  are  impressed  with 
the  genuine  but  exalted  humanity  of  Jesus : 
his  real  sympathy  and  tenderness;  his 
actual  reverence  and  prayerf ulness ;  his 
moral  and  intellectual  power,  his  strength 
and  nobility  of  will;  his  clear  spiritual 
insight;  his  immense  and  gracious  person- 

108 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

ality  which  made  it  possible  for  him  to  heal 
and  to  inspire  the  people  about  him.  It 
was  his  exalted  humanity  that  enabled  him 
to  become  a  vast  historical  influence. 

When  we  leave  the  plain  facts  of  the 
Gospels  for  a  celestial  court  with  its  trans- 
fer of  merit,  we  cease  to  walk  in  Galilee 
with  Jesus.  The  Son  of  Man  as  the  sublime 
person  to  love  and  emulate  vanishes  when 
we  begin  to  think  of  the  Assize  in  the  sky 
where  sinners  who  simply  believe  certain 
things  about  him  are  released  from  endless 
torment.  An  appreciation  of  the  Histor- 
ical Jesus  must  not  depart  from  the  facts 
of  the  Gospels;  and  only  the  Historical 
Jesus  can  have  a  place  in  the  universe  of 
God  that  science  discloses. 

But  more  than  this:  Our  appreciation 
of  Jesus  must  certainly  honor  his  own 
teachings.  And  those  teachings  all 
point  in  one  direction:  away  from 
the  sacrificial  and  toward  an  ethical 
interpretation  of  life.  Make  the  tour  of 
the  parables :  Everywhere  the  assumption 
of  God's  immediate,  constant,  and  univer- 
sal providence  of  love.    No  mediator  be- 

109 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

tween  father  and  prodigal  son;  the  Good 
King  welcomes  and  blesses  the  servants  of 
love  for  what  they  had  done,  not  for  what 
they  had  believed.  Pass  down  the  glowing 
line  of  the  Beatitudes;  all  blessings  upon 
personal  righteousness,  without  any  refer- 
ence to  himself.  The  Golden  Rule  a  guide 
to  personal  conduct,  not  a  measure  of  theo- 
logical opinion.  The  forgiveness  of  God 
always  issuing  from  the  forgiving  spirit 
which  man  himself  exercises :  forgiven  not 
because  we  believe  in  him  but  because  we 
are  ourselves  forgiving.  The  Fatherhood 
of  God  as  inclusive,  immediate,  and  impar- 
tial as  the  sunlight:  no  place  there  for 
sacrificial  mediation.  The  way  of  salvation 
the  appropriation,  not  the  propitiation,  of 
God.  Destiny  shaped  by  Inner  Life.  These 
are  the  doctrines  of  Jesus:  they  are  also 
spiritual  doctrines  in  harmony  with  the 
latest  and  best  science.  They  are  doctrines 
that  the  psychologist  approves  and  the 
educator  puts  in  practice.  If  we  are  to 
appreciate  the  Historical  Jesus,  we  must 
not  wander  off  into  speculative  mysticism, 
but  keep  close  to  these  great  facts  that  con- 
stitute his  message  and  create  his  influence. 

110 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

Is  it  true  that  to  leave  out  the  sacrificial 
element  is  to  destroy  the  power  and  beauty 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus'?  Let  us  see.  Is 
there  any  sacrificial  element  in  the  parable 
of  the  Samaritan?  Certainly  not!  And 
yet  it  has  power  and  beauty.  Is  there  any 
sacrificial  element  in  the  parable  of  the 
Prodigal !  Certainly  not !  And  yet  it  has 
power  and  beauty.  Is  there  any  sacrificial 
element  in  the  parables  of  the  Talents,  the 
Leaven,  the  Lost  Sheep?  Certainly  not! 
And  yet  they  have  power  and  beauty.  The 
command  of  Jesus  to  the  rich  young  man, 
seeking  the  way  to  eternal  life,  contains  no 
sacrificial  element;  but  it  has  had  marvel- 
ous influence  upon  human  life.  The  re- 
mark of  Jesus  to  the  degraded  woman — 
' '  Go  and  sin  no  more, ' ' — has  no  sacrificial 
element;  but  it  has  had  great  authority 
over  human  hearts.  Shall  we  then  leave 
out  the  sacrificial  element  from  the  gospel 
of  Jesus?  No,  indeed!  We  only  need  to 
keep  it  out,  for  it  is  not  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  His  life  was  a  supreme  illustra- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice, — living 
to  bless  others ;  but  of  sacrifice  as  a  judicial 

111 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

and  supernatural  arrangement  to  satisfy 
the  wrath  of  God  and  enable  sinners  to 
escape  punishment:  of  this  there  is  noth- 
ing in  his  great  and  authentic  teachings. 

Now,  what  shall  we  reply  to  those  who 
press  the  objection  that  the  Historical 
Jesus  has  no  power  to  move,  chasten,  and 
enrich  the  common  human  heart?  This 
demand  for  heart-life,  and  for  a  view  of 
Jesus  that  will  increase  our  heart-life,  is 
sound  and  reasonable.  But  is  it  true  that 
the  new  appreciation  of  Jesus  leaves  us 
cold  and  lifeless  f  Is  it  true  that  there  are 
no  sources  of  emotional  power  except  in 
the  traditional  view  of  the  cross?  Is  it 
true  that  sinners  can  only  be  brought  to 
repentance  by  the  story  of  vicarious  suf- 
ferings ? 

This  is  our  reply  to  these  very  important 
questions.  It  is  certainly  reasonable  to 
hold  that  what  was  sufficient  for  Jesus  him- 
self as  means  and  methods  of  piety  is  also 
adequate  for  us.  Jesus  found  inspiration, 
comfort,  courage,  hope,  and  trust,  sufficient 
for  his  sublime  life,  by  going  directly  to 
God,  the  Father.    May  we  not  do  the  same?, 

112 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

If  this  was  all  that  he  needed  to  do,  need 
we  do  any  more?  Moreover,  Jesus  asked 
men  to  do  nothing  more ;  these  sources  of 
life  within  the  soul,  to  which  he  resorted, 
are  those  which  he  commended  to  us  as 
sufficient ;  he  described  no  others ! 

The  heart  of  Jesus  was  adequately 
equipped  for  all  his  great  tasks  by  immedi- 
ate communion  with  God.  Surely  what 
was  sufficient  for  him  is  sufficient  for  us. 
And  it  was  to  this  spiritual  communion 
with  God  that  he  commanded  all  men  to 
resort.  His  was  not  a  cold  or  feeble  piety : 
its  sources  in  God  are  open  to  us;  and  to 
them  he  asked  us  to  go.  Jesus  brought 
sinners  to  repentance,  not  by  telling  the 
story  of  vicarious  suffering  but  by  appeals 
to  their  hearts  in  terms  of  human  experi- 
ence. When  he  commanded:  "Follow 
me,"  he  certainly  meant  that  we  use  his 
method  in  dealing  with  sinners. 

Jesus  nourished  his  love  by  direct  resort 
to  the  Infinite  Love.  It  was  his  plea  that 
we  do  the  same.  What  prepared  him  for 
his  wonderful  life  of  love  ought  to  be  suf- 
ficient for  us.     We  need  not  feel  poor, 

113 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

lonely,  or  helpless,  when,  according  to  his 
teachings,  all  the  spiritual  riches  and  re- 
sources to  which  he  had  access,  are  also 
ours!  This  is  just  what  obedience  to  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  means;  and  this  is  the  heart 
of  Christianity. 

We  need  not  fear  that  this  new  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Historical  Jesus  will  leave  our 
hearts  cold  and  our  hands  powerless. 
Hearts  cold,  when  we  can  go  in  his  foot- 
steps directly  to  God?  Nothing  left  to 
inspire  or  to  comfort  us !  Do  we  not  have 
God,  whom  Jesus  called  his  Father  and 
our  Father!  The  Divine  Love  not  only 
remains,  but  it  remains  undimmed  by  the 
shadow  of  Hate  and  the  smoke  of  Torment. 
We  trace  it  in  the  story  of  Jesus;  but 
wider  also  in  the  evolution  of  humanity. 
An  immediate  love  of  the  immanent  God 
to  share  and  to  spread. 

The  new  appreciation  of  the  Historical 
Jesus,  does  not  leave  him  without  power 
and  man  without  motive.  It  brings  Jesus 
close  to  us  to  rebuke  our  sin,  to  heal  our 
wounds,  to  strengthen  us  against  tempta- 
tion, to  move  us  to  service.   We  have  no 

114 


A  New  Appreciation  of  Jesus 

4  *  dead  Christ,"  but  a  real  Heart  of  Love, 
who  shows  us  the  open  way  to  the 
Heart  of  God.  We  most  truly  appre- 
ciate Jesus  when  we  make  the  spirit 
and  method  of  his  life  the  spirit  and 
method  of  our  own  life.  Only  in  this  way 
can  he  be  most  historical  and  also  most 
helpful  to  us. 


115 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 


THE  UNIQUENESS  OF  JESUS 

It  is  the  singleness  of  this  "life  in  God"  that  gave 
its  uniqueness  to  the  personality  of  Jesus;  referring 
hack  all  his  experiences  to  the  infinitely  Perfect,  all  his 
sorrows  to  the  eternal  blessedness,  all  his  disappoint- 
ments to  the  living  Fountain  of  hope.  The  deluding 
impressions  of  a  drudging  and  suffering  world  were 
habitually  checked  and  transcended  by  a  recovered 
contact  with  the  one  and  only  Good. 

In  completely  realizing  the  filial  relation  to  God, 
he  at  once  glorified  the  dependent,  obedient,  suffering  life 
which  is  assigned  to  us;  and  rose  to  the  height  of  that 
divine  kinship  which  makes  the  affections  of  heaven 
and  earth  reciprocal,  and  identifies  the  essence  of  moral 
perfection  in  both  spheres.  The  Man  of  Sorrows  is 
our  personal  exemplar;  the  Son  of  God  is  our  spiritual 
ideal,  in  whose  harmonious  and  majestic  soul,  imper- 
turbable in  justice,  tender  in  mercy,  stainless  in  purity, 
and  bending  in  protection  over  all  guileless  truth,  an 
objective  reflection  of  the  Divine  holiness  is  given  us, 
answering  and  interpreting  the  subjective  revelation 
of  the  conscience. 

James  Martineau. 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

As  we  look  back  through  the  mists  of  the 
centuries  to  that  distant  time  when  there 
were  no  crosses  glittering  above  city  or 
hamlet,  when  Eome  ruled  the  world  by  her 
legions  and  not,  as  since,  by  her  priests, 
we  see  in  Nazareth,  a  little  village  nestling 
among  the  hills  of  Galilee,  a  young  man, 
whose  radiant  presence,  sweet,  strong 
words,  and  noble  deeds  have  made  all  those 
by-paths  and  hill-tops  forever  dear  and 
sacred  to  mankind.  Clad  in  the  garments 
of  a  peasant,  Jesus  goes  to  his  humble 
labor  in  the  simple,  earnest  manner  of  a 
common  workman.  His  morning  greeting 
is  as  quiet  and  human  as  that  of  any  fel- 
low-toiler. But  in  his  deep,  penetrating 
mind  great  thoughts  are  crystallizing;  in 
his  pure,  fresh  heart  great  aspirations  are 
growing. 

When  we  see  Jesus  standing  on  the 
threshold   of  his  wonderful  career,   and 

119 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

remember  what  he  said  and  what  he  did 
in  that  short  ministry  that  changed  the 
course  of  history  and  transformed  the 
quality  of  human  life,  we  may  well  exclaim : 
Would  that  we  were  able  to  lift  the  veil 
so  that  we  might  trace  the  evolution  of 
his  soul!  Would  that  we  might  discover 
the  processes  by  which  his  character  grew : 
How  his  mind  was  trained;  how  his  heart 
was  cultivated;  how  he  reached  the 
supreme  excellencies  of  his  manhood  and 
the  sublime  principles  of  his  gospel.  What 
a  satisfaction  it  would  be,  if  we  could  look 
into  the  home  that  sheltered  him  and 
become  acquainted  with  the  family  that 
nurtured  him ! 

While  we  cannot  penetrate  these  myster- 
ies, still  we  may  be  sure  that  his  was  not 
a  squalid  or  a  wretched  home,  but  the  realm 
of  eloquent  peace  and  noble  simplicity, 
where  the  divine  influence  impinged  forci- 
bly yet  graciously  upon  the  human  spirit, 
A  humble,  obscure  family,  and  yet,  all  the 
essentials  of  human  life  were  there.  The 
field  was  broad  enough  for  training  in 
patience,    and    for    the    development    of 

120 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

virtue;  ample  enough  for  the  display  of 
pride  and  indolence.  Great  holiness  or 
hideous  vice  is  often  sheltered  by  a  very 
small  roof.  The  dwellers  in  such  cottages 
have  to  decide  between  thrift  and  idleness, 
between  self-control  and  passion,  between 
chastity  and  sensuality;  and  to  make  the 
right  decision  is  that  which  constitutes  real 
greatness  and  true  nobility,  there  and  also 
everywhere.  Temptations  bear  down  with 
just  as  fierce  onsets  in  such  places  as  in 
palaces,  and  the  disciplines  of  love  and 
sorrow  carve  out  just  as  beautiful  features 
and  heroic  characters  there  as  in  high 
official  stations.  Providence,  like  the 
atmosphere,  rests  with  equal  pressure  upon 
the  hut  and  the  mansion.  All  the  elements 
of  the  moral  economy  were  present  in  that 
artisan  family  of  Nazareth  town. 

But  our  supreme  interest  is  not  in  that 
obscure  house  nor  in  the  glowing  horizon 
that  frames  it  round  about.  The  facts  and 
fancies  out  of  which  our  gladness  and 
inspiration  are  woven  when  we  think  of 
the  "Christ  child, " radiate  about  a  divinely 
human  figure.     Going  in  and  out  of  the 

121 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

doorway,  and  carrying  tender  words  and 
sweet  smiles  to  and  fro  between  Joseph 
and  Mary,  is  the  child  Jesus — a  child 
nourished  by  a  love,  which,  surely,  was  far 
greater  than  that  which  children  in  general 
have  known.  Every  day's  unfolding  life 
was  closed  with  the  music  of  a  mother's 
tenderness ;  every  morning  was  ushered  in 
with  the  caresses  of  a  father's  watch-care. 
The  hand  of  violence  was  never  laid  upon 
his  tender  body;  the  eye  of  angry  passion 
was  never  turned  upon  his  sensitive  soul 
to  create  tears  and  heartaches. 

More  than  this,  it  seems  evident  from  the 
quality  of  his  own  life,  that  Jesus  never 
heard  an  unkind  word  pass  between  his 
father  and  mother.  He  saw  neither  frowns, 
nor  strife,  nor  bitterness,  but  mutual  affec- 
tion and  helpfulness — a  true  home,  which 
is  man's  paradise  and  woman's  kingdom. 
So  that,  folded  in  the  arms  of  an  abundant 
love,  Jesus  passed  his  early  days  amidst 
a  domestic  peace,  unbroken  by  discords; 
and  he  grew  to  manhood,  unscarred  by  the 
sight  of  hatred  and  unburdened  by  the 
sense  of  fear,  so  far  as  his  own  family 
experience  was  concerned. 

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The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

But  with  older  years  Jesus  went  about 
the  village,  meeting  other  children  and 
seeing  other  homes.  In  this  way  he  learned 
what  fear  is,  what  sorrow  is,  and  what 
anger  is.  He  saw  homes  in  which  faces 
were  dark  with  frowns  and  eyes  were  full 
of  tears.  Budding  reflection  called  atten- 
tion to  the  great  difference  between  his  own 
home  and  those  other  homes;  between  his 
parents  and  their  neighbors;  between  his 
lot  aud  the  sad  fortunes  of  other  children. 
He  could  not  help  asking  the  question: 
Why  these  differences !  In  our  family  such 
unbroken  joy,  in  the  neighboring  families 
so  many  angry  turmoils ;  in  my  heart  such 
undisturbed  peace,  in  these  playmates  so 
many  fears  and  hatreds.  Why  these  dif- 
ferences 1 

How  long  the  study,  we  cannot  tell ;  but 
that  Jesus  discovered  the  true  cause  we 
know.  By  his  personal  experience,  he  found 
that  love  made  all  these  immense  differ- 
ences. There  was  joy  in  his  heart  and 
home,  because  love  was  there  supreme. 
Those  neighboring  homes  were  dark  and 
sorrowful,  because  destitute  of  love.    And 

123 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

never  did  any  son  of  man  make  a  greater 
discovery  than  when  Jesus  learned  by 
actual  experience  the  divine  power  of  love, 
which  is  also  the  secret  of  holiness— a  dis- 
covery more  useful  to  human  life  than 
anything  revealed  by  telescope  or  micro- 
scope : 

"For  life,  with  all  it  yields  of  joy  and  woe, 
And  hope  and  fear, — believe  the  aged  friend, — 
Is  just  our  chance  o'  the  prize  of  learning  love, 
How  love  might  be,  hath  been,  indeed,  and  is, 
And  that  we  hold  thenceforth  to  the  uttermost 
Such  prize  despite  the  envy  of  the  world, 
And,  having  gained  truth,  keep  truth — that  is  all!'* 

In  after  years,  when  Jesus  became  a 
great  prophet,  this  experience  of  his  child- 
hood uttered  itself  in  that  wonderful  gos- 
pel of  love,  which  has  had  such  remarkable 
power  over  human  hearts  and  human  his- 
tory. He  learned  in  the  sacred  realm  of 
his  own  home  from  Joseph  and  Mary  that 
love  is  the  principal  thing.  There  he  dis- 
covered that  society  may  and  must  be 
reorganized  by  love  and  self-sacrifice ;  for 
that  which  is  the  true  spirit  for  the  family 
is  also  the  beneficent  policy  for  the  state. 

124 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

When  he  began  to  unfold  his  ideal  respect- 
ing the  kingdom  of  heaven,  he  showed  peo- 
ple that  only  a  pure,  authoritative  love  can 
create  it.  In  discovering  by  experience  the 
power  and  office  of  this  imperial  sentiment, 
Jesus  solved  the  problem  of  human  life. 
It  only  remains  for  science  to  lend  the 
assistance  of  truth,  and  for  education  to 
incarnate  and  organize  both  in  personal 
character  and  civic  affairs.  The  tender 
affection  which  he  felt  in  the  stone  cottage 
of  Nazareth  town  disclosed  itself  after- 
wards in  the  Beatitudes  and  the  Golden 
Rule,  and  these  are  still  the  seeds  of  the 
heavenly  life. 

May  we  not  also  reasonably  infer  that 
in  company  with  brothers  and  sisters, 
Jesus  discovered  the  mysteries  and  glories 
of  child-nature.  He  watched  with  wonder- 
ing eyes  the  processes  by  which  the  soul 
is  unfolded  and  built  up  in  strength  and 
beauty.  He  saw  how  the  infinite  Father 
has  planted  a  witness  of  himself  in  the 
conscience.  He  saw  how  character  is 
unfolded  from  within.  He  saw  that  the 
method  of  the  divine  life  is   growth;   a 

125 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

truth  to  which  he  gave  wings  in  his  para- 
bles of  the  mustard  seed,  the  leaven,  and 
the  growth  of  the  corn.  He  learned 
through  those  early  experiences  to  appre- 
ciate the  child,  to  understand  the  essential 
goodness  of  the  child's  nature,  to  trace 
the  large  outline  of  its  possibilities,  to  see 
its  imperative  need  of  loving  nurture.  And 
out  of  these  experiences  issued,  later  in 
life,  that  memorable  saying,  which  has 
helped  us  all  toward  simplicity  of  heart 
and  tenderness  of  spirit,  and  which  has 
made  the  world  a  better  place  for  children 
ever  since:  "Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  little  child 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  therein;  for  of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  God. '  • 

Therefore,  we  may  well  imagine,  that 
in  years  now  long  past,  in  the  humble 
home  in  Nazareth  town,  the  boy  Jesus 
grew  to  that  sweet,  strong,  manhood,  which 
has  powerfully  inspired  and  nobly  enriched 
all  hearts  and  lives  through  the  many 
centuries  since  his  day.  Thus  it  was  that 
he  learned  to  crown  childhood  itself  with 
an  act  so  gracious  that  all  children  have 

126 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

seemed  more  precious  ever  since ;  while  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  set  forth  in  those 
symbols  of  innocence  and  simplicity,  has 
had  a  new  meaning.  For  he  extended  the 
affectionate  sanctity  which  the  child  feels 
for  the  home  to  field  and  sky,  which  he 
made  the  mansion  of  the  heavenly  Father ; 
and  the  love,  trust  and  obedience,  which 
mark  the  perfect  child,  he  made  the  atti- 
tudes and  affections  that  constitute  man 
a  heavenly  citizen,  joyful  in  the  divine 
presence,  and  glad  in  obeying  the  divine 
will  and  sharing  the  divine  life, — 

"Whose   litanies,   sweet  offices 
Of  love  and  gratitude: 
Whose    sacramental    liturgies, 
The  joy  of  doing  good." 

There  are  other  things  that  seem  quite 
clear  respecting  the  growth  of  Jesus  to 
self-mastery,  and  so  to  the  exalted  posi- 
tion as  spiritual  master  of  the  world, 
which  he  soon  gained  and  which  he  still 
retains.  We  have  no  annals  descriptive  of 
his  early  manhood ;  but  we  have  the  mature 
man  himself;  and  as  we  know  the  general 

127 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

laws  of  human  life  that  govern  the  evolu- 
tion of  character,  we  may  legitimately 
infer  that  back  of  the  mature  man,  who  is 
visible,  lay  certain  great  experiences  and 
ethical  disciplines.  This  inference  is  as 
rational  as  our  conclusion  that  the  superb 
picture,  or  the  remarkable  musical  compo- 
sition, was  produced  by  a  great  creative 
genius. 

As  we  follow  this  line  of  interpretation, 
may  we  not  find  a  world  of  deep  and  illum- 
inating meaning  in  the  brief  but  suggestive 
statement  in  the  Gospel  that  Jesus  was 
obedient  unto  his  father?  It  was  needful 
that  he  should  learn  to  obey  in  order  that 
he  might,  later  in  life,  be  able  to  command 
with  wisdom.  Who  can  doubt  but  that 
Jesus  in  the  days  of  his  youth  was  per- 
fected by  the  parental  companionship  and 
appreciation  that  alone  make  the  atmos- 
phere in  which  young  life  ripens  into  noble 
maturity.  And  so  we  read:  "  Jesus 
increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in 
favor  with  God  and  man." 

Thus  Jesus  came  to  appreciate  his 
father,  and  instead  of  feeling  restive  under 

128 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

his  rule,  it  became  his  greatest  delight  to 
conform    to    the    paternal    will.      Jesus 
learned  through  this  ever  enriching  com- 
panionship how  much  the  word  " father' ' 
means.     And  when  the  abundant  life  of 
mature  manhood  came  into  his  soul,  illum- 
inating his  features  from  within,  the  fresh 
consciousness  of  the  encompassing  divine- 
ness,  freighted  with  solemn  awe  and  sweet 
mystery,   found  expression  in  the   term, 
"Our  Father  in  Heaven."     As  he   had 
found  greatest  joy  in  doing  Joseph's  will, 
he  now  found  divinest  peace  in  yielding 
to  the  heavenly  Father's  will,  as  spoken 
through  the  oracles  of  his  own  soul.     So 
that  when  Jesus  in  later  life  called  God, 
1  l  Our  Father, ' '  he  thrilled  people,  because 
the  word,  by  domestic  associations  of  love, 
trust,  and  gratitude,  had  come  to  mean  so 
much  to  him.     The  universal  prayer  and 
the  parables  are  loaded  with  the  power  of 
an  infinite  tenderness  that  was  nourished 
into  activity  by  the  loving  kindness  of  his 
father.    And  it  was  into  the  symbolism  of 
that  tenderness  that  he  translated  the  law 
of  the  universe. 

129 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

When  we  read  the  story  of  the  Good 
Samaritan  are  we  not  in  touch  with  one 
who  himself  knew  by  experience  what  it 
means  to  serve  the  sufferer,  whoever  he 
may  be,  and  to  befriend  the  stranger 
though  he  may  belong  to  some  race  hated 
by  his  own  people?  Only  an  experience 
in  kindness  could  have  created  this  divine 
lesson  in  universal  sympathy.  When  our 
hearts  are  melted  to  pitying  tenderness  by 
the  parable  of  the  Lost  Sheep,  we  yield 
ourselves  to  the  compassion  of  a  man  who 
knew  how  to  picture  the  shepherding  love, 
because  he  himself  had  exercised  it.  When 
Jesus  commanded  forgiveness  with  an  elo- 
quence and  an  authority  which  made  the 
grace  a  peculiarly,  though  not  exclusively, 
Christian  attribute,  was  it  not  because  he 
himself  had  learned  by  personal  experience 
the  necessity  and  the  glory  of  the  forgiving 
spirit? 

If  the  veil  were  lifted,  we  should  see 
Jesus  pouring  over  the  Hebrew  Script- 
ures: studying  the  great  precepts  of  the 
Law  and  learning  to  separate  kernel  from 
husk;  meditating  on  the  sublime  declara- 

130 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

tions  of  the  Prophets  and  unfolding  them 
to  higher  spiritual  applications;  and 
brooding  over  the  wonderful  imagery  of 
the  Psalms  that  deeply  stirred  his  religious 
emotions  and  quickened  his  poetic  impulses. 
Surely  back  of  his  remarkable  use 
of  texts,  in  exposition  of  Inner  Life  as  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  lay  long  years  of  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  those  writings  and 
final  spiritual  mastery  of  their  contents. 

If  the  veil  were  lifted  and  we  could 
follow  Jesus  through  the  fields  and  up  the 
mountain  side,  what  a  wonderful  student 
of  nature  we  should  find  him  to  be !  What 
a  quick  eye  for  all  the  varied  details  of 
sky  and  landscape !  What  a  keen  interest 
in  everything  beautiful, — bird,  flower,  and 
tree!  What  a  marvelous  gift  in  using 
natural  phenomena  as  symbols  of  spiritual 
truth!  Only  by  long  and  loving  observa- 
tion could  he  have  gained  the  familiarity 
with  nature  which  his  teachings  reveal. 

And  now  that  we  are  able  to  read  the 
stories  of  Jesus 's  Temptation  with  free 
reason  and  fluent  fancy  in  a  natural  and 
human  way,  they  assume  fresh  significance, 

131 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

and  they  acquire  a  historical  meaning  of 
a  new  and  higher  character.  They  lie 
before  us,  not  as  prosaic  annals  to  be  used 
in  the  making  of  dogma ;  they  are  instead 
beautiful  poems  which  grew  out  of  the 
warm  reverence  of  friendly  hearts  in  order 
to  describe  certain  great  experiences 
through  which  Jesus  did  undoubtedly  pass 
on  his  way  to  mastery  of  himself  and  the 
world. 

In  the  loneliness  of  some  wilderness 
with  great  wrestlings  of  spirit,  Jesus  had 
to  learn  that  the  needs  of  the  soul  are 
greater  than  the  wants  of  the  body.  Who- 
ever saves  humanity  must  do  something 
greater  than  turn  stones  into  bread;  he 
must  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  human  soul 
for  love  and  purity.  On  some  mountain 
height  with  the  glories  and  luxuries  of  the 
world  spread  out  before  him  to  allure  and 
entice,  Jesus  had  to  discover  that  Inner 
Life  is  the  one  imperishable  wealth  that 
neither  moth  nor  rust  can  corrupt ;  the  one 
enduring  power  and  immortal  joy.  Who- 
ever redeems  human  hearts  must  do  it, 
not  with  gold  but  with  love.    And  aloft  on 

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The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

some  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  representing 
the  old  order  deep  rooted  in  tradition, 
Jesus  had  to  conquer  all  his  distrusts  of 
himself  and  all  his  fears  of  the  world,  by 
coming  to  realize  that  truth  alone  is  infinite 
in  power  and  glory.  Whoever  brings  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God  must  do  so  by  the 
truth  of  God. 

Who  can  tell  out  of  what  lonely  vigils, 
by  what  heart  searchings,  with  what 
experiences  among  the  deep  things  of  the 
soul,  Jesus  came  to  see  the  central  truth 
of  his  gospel:  Inner  Life  is  salvation! 
That  he  made  the  great  discovery  we  know. 
In  these  legends  of  the  Temptation  we  have 
glimpses  into  the  heart  struggles  by  which 
he  made  it.  And  at  last,  he  stands  in  the 
clear  light  of  history  with  this  principle 
in  his  heart  and  this  message  on  his  lips. 

The  proposition  for  which  we  contend 
is  this :  In  studying  the  life  of  Jesus,  we 
are  dealing  with  a  historical  character. 
His  life,  if  a  real  life  with  any  helpfulness 
to  us,  must  have  arisen  out  of  an  actual 
human  and  historical  experience.  The 
quality  of  his  message  and  ministry  as 

133 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

clearly  reveal  the  general  elements  of  that 
experience,  as  the  finished  building  reveals 
the  plan  of  the  architect.  The  spirituality 
of  his  manhood,  so  evident  and  so  impres- 
sive, proves  a  spiritual  evolution  out  of 
which  it  came.  The  ethical  quality  of  the 
personality  before  us  makes  it  easy  for 
imagination  to  describe  the  general  line  of 
growth  followed  during  his  youth  and 
early  manhood.  If  the  naturalist  can 
reproduce  the  form  of  an  extinct  animal 
from  a  few  fossil  bones,  we  may  surely 
outline  with  some  approximate  accuracy 
the  growth  of  soul  that  led  up  to  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Victory  on 
Calvary. 

In  the  fullness  of  time,  therefore,  Jesus 
became  master  of  himself:  master  also  of 
the  sublime  doctrine  of  Inner  Life.  Dur- 
ing the  brief  period  of  his  public  ministry, 
we  may  follow  him  more  clearly,  as  he 
applies  this  doctrine  in  his  varied  teach- 
ings and  numerous  experiences  among 
men.  Jesus  is  not  lost  in  the  mere  circum- 
stances of  his  lowly  life.  While  his  hands 
are  busy  at  the  bench  by  his  side,  his 

134 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

mind  broods  in  the  solicitude  of  an  infinite 
love  over  the  fortunes  of  the  people  who 
surround  him.  But  he  is  no  idle  dreamer, 
no  mere  enthusiast,  no  visionary  theorist. 
His  fingers  are  not  listless.  One  command- 
ing object  and  theme,  "Man,"  more  and 
more  engages  his  attention  and  affection. 
The  kingdom  of  the  Spirit  does  not  sup- 
plant, but  to  him  it  overarches  and  pene- 
trates, illuminates  and  sanctifies  all  the 
trivial  details  of  his  outward  and  physical 
life. 

Jesus  hears  the  village  politician  bemoan 
and  denounce  the  Roman  supremacy.  Wild, 
startling  rumors  of  cruelty  come  to  his 
ears.  He  sees  the  excitement  ferment  and 
spread  as  these  stories  are  told  and  retold 
among  his  neighbors.  He  listens  to  accounts 
of  uprisings  among  his  people  against 
Rome  before  his  day.  Whisperings  of 
another  bloody  revolt  circulate.  In  all 
this,  to  his  clear  insight,  one  thing  is  evi- 
dent. His  people  attribute  all  their 
troubles  to  the  fact  that  the  Roman  tyrant 
rules  in  Jerusalem.  Whatever  sorrow 
befalls,    whatever    misfortune    overtakes, 

135 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

they  all  cry  out:  That  comes  from  the 
hateful  and  hated  Gentile. 

But  there  is  another  voice  that  Jesus 
hears.  The  old  men  put  their  heads  togeth- 
er as  they  meet  on  the  corner;  and,  with 
a  flash  of  vengeance  in  their  eye,  they  speak 
in  bated  breath  of  the  expected  Messiah. 
They  whisper  to  each  other :  These  cruel- 
ties will  not  last  forever.  The  promise 
made  to  his  prophets,  Jehovah  will  surely 
keep.  The  Son  of  Man  will  soon  come 
from  heaven  in  clouds  of  fiery  glory !  Then 
Roman  legions  shall  lie  under  our  feet; 
the  proud  and  wicked  Gentile  shall  be 
humbled.  We,  the  Lord's  faithful  but  per- 
secuted people,  shall  tread  upon  our 
oppressors.  Israel  shall  occupy  the  land 
in  peace,  and  all  sorrows  shall  have  an 
end. 

Jesus  noticed  that  whenever  a  traveler, 
bringing  some  tale  of  fresh  cruelty,  came  to 
the  village,  the  curious  and  excited  people 
gathered  around  him,  and  there  was  first 
a  feeling  of  dismay  and  horror  that  found 
vent  in  execrations  upon  Eome.  Then,  as 
the  Messianic  Hope  came  to  mind,  and  they 

136 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

talked  over  the  recent  signs  and  wonders 
that  were  supposed  to  herald  the  Deliv- 
erer's approach,  a  savage  gleam  lighted 
up  their  faces;  and  their  voices  became 
husky  with  passion  as  they  spoke  of  the 
time,  surely  near  at  hand,  when  they  would 
tread  their  enemies  into  the  dust. 

From  such  crowds  Jesus  turned  away 
in  deep  sorrow  and  with  painful  amaze- 
ment. And  when  he  went  into  the  village 
synagogue  expecting  to  find  there  spiritual 
wisdom  and  helpfulness  for  his  troubled 
and  misguided  people,  his  sorrow  and 
amazement  deepened.  The  rabbis,  as  a 
rule,  spoke  of  tithes  and  offerings,  and 
simply  expounded  and  elaborated  the  law 
for  Levitical  purity.  There  was  no  word 
that  went  with  power  into  the  soul,  sooth- 
ing the  heart  and  enlightening  the  mind. 
For  then,  much  as  now,  those  who  asked 
for  emancipating  truths  were  bidden  study 
a  text ;  those  who  craved  bread  were  given 
a  stone;  those  who  were  perishing  from 
lack  of  sympathy  were  commanded  to  offer 
a  sacrifice;  and  those  ready  to  engage  in 
heroic  deeds  were  asked  to  believe  mere 

137 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

speculations  about  trivial  subjects.  The 
teachings  were  mere  commentary  and  idle 
casuistry,  with  no  direct  contact  with 
divine  realities,  and  no  fresh,  inspiring 
view  of  life.  All  seemed  confused  and 
blind.  The  secret  of  that  deliverance,  for 
which  they  were  so  anxiously  awaiting,  and 
which  was  within  reach  of  everyone, 
dawned  not  upon  the  mind  of  teacher  or 
worshiper. 

The  keen  appreciation  of  the  sorrows 
of  his  people  and  the  vivid  consciousness 
of  their  great  mistake  respecting  the  way 
of  deliverance,  were  indeed  a  growing 
burden  that  weighed  more  and  more  heavi- 
ly upon  Jesus.  There  were,  in  truth,  griefs 
and  burdens  and  wrongs  on  every  side,  as 
there  are  all  about  us  today.  Children 
were  neglected;  homes  were  broken  up; 
family  feuds  abounded;  neighbors  quar- 
relled; young  people  were  reckless  and 
sensual;  the  poor  were  vicious,  the  rich 
were  corrupt;  leaders  were  cruel,  officials 
took  bribes,  the  people  were  sordid;  and 
so,  tears  were  a  flood  and  groans  a  mighty 
chorus.     And,  saddest  of  all,  the  people 

138 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

were  mistaken  about  the  cause  of  their 
troubles.  They  saw  the  tax  gatherer  or 
the  centurion,  and  said,  "He  is  the  cause 
of  all  our  misfortunes.  If  we  could  only 
destroy  him  we  should  be  perfectly 
happy ! ' ' 

But  Jesus  had  an  eye  for  the  deeper 
things  of  the  soul.  He  saw  that  the  root 
of  the  difficulty  was  in  their  own  being,  that 
it  was  poverty  and  perversity  of  spirit, 
leanness  and  meanness  of  the  soul.  This 
does  not  signify  that  conditions  are  unim- 
portant, but  that  the  creative  impulse  is 
most  important;  not  that  circumstances 
have  no  value  but  that  a  supreme  enthusi- 
asm is  Lord  over  all ;  not  that  environment 
is  to  be  ignored,  but  that  it  is  the  soul  which 
shapes  and  utilizes  environment. 

The  Jews  of  Palestine  at  that  time 
anxiously  scanned  the  heavens  for  signs 
of  the  advent  of  the  Promised  One  of  God. 
They  questioned  every  stranger  to  learn, 
if  possible,  that  the  Messiah  had  been  born. 
But  to  Jesus  this  waiting  for  outward  help 
was  a  sad  delusion.  The  salvation  they 
sought  could  never  come.    He  saw  that  the 

139 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

deliverance  must  come  within  every  soul. 
The  divine  emancipation  must  unfold  from 
within;  it  is  in  the  great  thought  that  illu- 
minates and  the  noble  sentiment  that  stirs 
to  action.  What  they  needed  was  Inner 
Life, — more  truth  to  guide,  more  love  to 
sanctify,  more  hope  to  uplift,  more  sympa- 
thy to  quicken. 

Jesus  understood  with  perfect  clearness 
the  true  character  of  man's  need;  not 
freedom  from  Eome,  not  the  Lord  from 
heaven,  but  freedom  from  sin,  and  the  Lord 
within.  Should  Rome  fall  and  the  skies 
let  down  a  wondrous  king,  the  dark  minds 
and  warring  hearts  of  the  people  would 
continue,  and  the  bondage  would  be  as 
great  as  ever.  Nothing  that  might  trans- 
pire without  them  as  a  mere  political  event 
or  social  revolution  could  place  them 
within  the  gates  of  paradise.  The  leaven 
of  love  must  work  within  the  soul  before 
heaven  could  be  reached.  First  the  heav- 
enly spirit  in  the  heart  and  then  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  in  the  world.  Let  Rome, 
then,  rule  on,  and  the  firmament  stand; 
they  could  all,  then  and  there,  make  of 

140 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

themselves  a  kingdom  of  heaven  by  growth 
and  purity  of  sonl !  Have  that  Inner  Life, 
then  the  soul  is  a  kingdom  at  peace,  the 
home  is  a  paradise,  the  neighborhood  is 
a  sanctuary,  and  the  whole  universe  is  an 
embodied  smile  of  God!  This  was  the 
gospel  that  Jesus  went  forth  to  teach,  in 
order  that  his  people  might  have  eternal 
life,  not  as  a  future  purchase,  but  as  a 
present  reality. 

This  was  the  "good  news' '  that  Jesus 
proclaimed:  That  goodwill  toward  one 
another  is  what  God,  who  is  good,  asks  of 
everyone.  This  is  all  that  heaven  demands 
and  all  that  the  world  needs.  The  good 
news  is  the  discovery  that  goodwill  itself 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Just  because 
Jesus  made  people  feel  all  this  supremely, 
the  statement  respecting  goodwill  among 
men  became  the  theme  of  the  angels  who 
welcomed  him  to  the  earth.  It  was  a  true 
instinct  that  created  the  poem,  as  has 
already  been  stated.  A  song  of  goodwill 
in  the  skies,  because  his  good  news,  or 
gospel,  had  made  goodness  more  plentiful 
and  more  powerful  among  men. 

141 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

To  the  wayside  group  that  had  come  up 
from  the  hamlet  nestling  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill,  Jesus  spoke  the  great  truths  of  the 
spiritual  life  in  simple  words  that  befitted 
their  majesty.  To  their  wan,  restless 
unbelief,  that  found  no  divineness  in  their 
present  life,  he  revealed  the  Father.  He 
made  the  trees,  the  flowers,  the  birds,  the 
clouds  serve  as  symbols  of  Providence. 
He  made  them  see  the  Infinite  Beauty  rest- 
ing on  field  and  sky.  He  made  them  share 
his  feeling  that  he  was  indeed  a  child  lying 
in  the  lap  of  Infinite  Love.  He  aroused 
in  them  the  consciousness  of  God  as  In- 
dwelling Life. 

Jesus  told  the  people  about  the  wonder- 
ful things  of  love ;  how  love  for  each  other 
would  give  them  a  new  life;  how  it  would 
sweeten  all  occasions  and  rectify  all 
wrongs;  how  it  would  make  woman  pure 
and  high-minded,  and  man  peaceful  and 
clean-hearted;  how  it  would  do  away  with 
strife,  and  sorrow,  and  cruelty;  how  it 
would  set  the  solitary  together  in  families, 
restrain  the  wayward,  and  establish  justice 
and  mercy  throughout  the  world !    He  dis- 

148 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

covered  to  them  the  sphere  of  the  Spirit 
and  its  marvelous  riches  of  joy  and  peace. 
He  told  them  how,  if  they  took  this  sense 
of  God  as  the  Supreme  Goodness  and  this 
holy  love  as  a  rule  of  life  .back  with  them 
into  the  hamlet,  its  sorrows  and  evils  would 
cease  and  each  one  would  become  a  king- 
dom of  heaven.  The  person  who  should 
thus  rule  his  own  soul  and  serve  his  brother 
would  be  greater  than  the  man  who  should 
drive  the  Romans  out  of  Jerusalem.  Every 
one  who  grows  into  an  abundance  of  Inner 
Life  reaches  what  the  Son  of  Man  could 
not  bestow.  Salvation  is  not  what  is  put 
on,  but  what  is  inwrought ;  not  what  exists 
without  but  what  grows  within;  not  what 
transpires  but  what  inspires. 

We  see  Jesus  trying  to  save  his  people 
by  teaching  them  a  new  ideal  or  doctrine 
of  salvation  and  by  leading  them  along  a 
new  way  of  life.  He  endeavored  to  recreate 
society  by  leading  the  people  to  begin  with 
the  soul  and  work  out  from  the  primary 
sources  of  life  in  it.  He  showed  them  how 
they  might  make  themselves  a  kingdom  of 
heaven,  no  matter  how  humble  or  oppres- 

143 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

sive  their  external  conditions.  Jesus  was 
not  indifferent  to  public  righteousness  and 
social  conditions;  his  condemnation  fell 
swift  and  severe  upon  unjust  judge  and 
unmerciful  master;  but  he  went  into  the 
very  depths  of  the  heart  for  the  recreative 
energies  and  supreme  sources  of  a  new 
humanity.  These  teachings  of  his  respect- 
ing Inner  Life  were  as  "gentle  and  beauti- 
ful as  the  light  of  a  star. ' '  The  smile  that 
they  created  still  lingers  on  the  human 
face.  The  enthusiasm  that  they  kindled  is 
still  a  mighty  power  among  men.  They  are 
still  a  glorious  and  gladsome  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God! 

When  we  see  that  lovely  figure  moving 
across  the  hillsides  of  Galilee  and  along  the 
shores  of  Tiberias,  and  when  we  also  hear 
these  teachings,  so  spiritual  and  sublime, 
our  hearts  also  burn  within  us.  We  feel 
that  we  there  touch  human  nature  in  its 
ripened  purity  and  full-grown  nobility. 
Jesus  seems  a  wondrously  gentle  and 
humane  man,  of  whom  we  love  to  think, 
with  whom  it  is  refreshing  to  hold  com- 
munion.    He  illustrates  "the  ascendency 

144 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

of  man,  as  spirit,  over  the  physical  world." 
We  find  in  him  "preeminent  susceptibility 
to  the  divine  side  of  present  realities.,, 
There  is  a  ' '  rare  and  gracious  quality  in  his 
personality' '  that  gives  him  great  spiritual 
attractiveness  and  wonderful  human  inter- 
est. We  find  that  "his  words  stir  the  soul 
as  summer  dews  call  up  the  faint  and  sickly 
grass.' '  We  most  gladly  own  that  he  is 
"the  dearest  and  divinest  appearance  in 
human  form  that  ever  beamed  on  earthly 
scenes. ' ' 

As  thought  and  love  take  hold  of  that 
sublime  personality,  standing  not  in  mirac- 
ulous and  spectral  isolation,  but  within  the 
realm  of  humanity,  we  find  our  life  growing 
sweeter  and  tenderer.  We  see  no  halo  of 
mystical  light  about  his  head,  but  whenever 
we  turn  from  his  presence  to  the  world  we 
see  all  men  robed  in  a  new  sanctity;  so  that 
we  restrain  our  anger,  when  tempted,  while 
we  multiply  our  services  of  love  to  those 
in  need.  He  is  unto  us  a  sublime  example 
and  a  powerful  encouragement.  The 
human  nature  that  blossomed  in  him  into 
such  moral  and  spiritual  beauty  is  ours 

145 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

also,  to  blossom  likewise,  if  we  but  give  it 
the  warmth  of  love  and  the  light  of  truth. 

We  see  Jesus  again.  He  has  become 
famous.  The  people  crowd  around  him 
in  superstitious  awe  or  in  officious  famil- 
iarity. The  women  also  come,  bringing 
their  unawed  and  ill-kept  children.  But 
children  were  then  of  little  account  to  many 
grown  people.  That  sad  depreciation  has 
not  yet  been  half  outgrown.  "This  is  no 
place  to  bring  children,"  say  the  rough 
men;  and  they  begin  to  chide  the  timid 
women  and  tell  them  that  they  ought  to 
be  ashamed  to  come  there  and  take  up  the 
Master's  time! 

But  Jesus,  unsoiled  by  ambition  and 
unspoiled  by  success,  free  from  pride  and 
self -consciousness,  beams  upon  the  mothers 
and  their  children  ineffable  sympathy,  and 
beckons  them  to  come  near  to  him.  He 
then  lays  his  hand  lovingly  on  the  children, 
speaks  noble  words  that  soften  and  hallow 
all  hearts,  and  puts  a  child  in  their  midst 
as  symbol  of  the  purity  of  which  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  must  be  built.  What 
modesty!  What  tenderness !  What  human- 

146 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

ity  I  That,  indeed,  is  a  lovely  picture ;  and 
we  dwell  upon  it  with  ever-growing  delight. 
Whether  we  are  Jews  or  Christians,  ration- 
alists or  conservatives,  there  indeed  is 
something  that  appeals  to  us  as  pre- 
eminently and  perennially  beautiful  be- 
cause nobly  human!  We,  too,  will  have 
kinder  words  for  the  children.  That  Jewish 
youth  was  tenderer  than  a  mother!  He 
bows  us  all  in  reverence  before  the  child, 
where  we  cannot  too  long  linger  or  too 
devotedly  minister! 

Again  we  look.  Clouds,  dark  and  omin- 
ous, have  gathered.  The  rulers  have  heard 
of  Jesus,  and  fear  his  power  over  the 
lower  classes ;  for,  in  their  dull  minds,  they 
suppose  that  he,  too,  ]ike  many  social 
agitators  and  revolutionists  of  the  time,  is 
aiming  at  political  mischief.  He  suffers 
the  misfortune  of  being  misunderstood. 
Jesus,  moreover,  may  have  allowed  the 
enthusiasm  of  his  followers  to  lead  him  to 
undertake  too  great  a  task.  However  this 
may  have  been,  he  finds  difficult  and  thorny 
the  path  of  the  social  reformer — for  he 
aimed  at  a  new  society  founded  upon  a  new 

147 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

order  of  manhood ;  not  political  revolution, 
but  spiritual  evolution. 

At  last  Jesus  goes  up  to  Jerusalem  to 
teach  there  the  gospel,  received  as  so 
blessed  in  Galilee.  But  the  rulers  say: 
"This  man  is  dangerous;  he  must  be  put 
out  of  the  way ! ' '  Jesus  now  sees  that  the 
end  is  near.  The  shadow  falls ;  the  darkness 
deepens!  How  terrible  was  the  grief  of 
his  great  heart  over  his  unfulfilled  ideal, 
the  scene  in  Gethsemane,  over  which 
nations  have  wept,  reveals !  That  was  real 
grief;  real  disappointment.  He  cannot 
cause  deaf  ears  to  hear  or  blind  eyes  to  see. 
His  doctrine  of  Inner  Life  has  no  charms 
for  the  coarse  and  the  venal.  His  kingdom 
of  heaven  seems  too  vague  and  theoretical 
for  the  practical  politician.  He  cannot  win 
them  as  he  would ;  but  he  can  die  as  he  had 
lived — calm,  meek,  self -poised.  And  so  he 
meets  his  fate,  with  neither  wrath  nor  fear ; 
with  neither  despair  nor  disloyalty.  Suffi- 
ciency and  sovereignty  of  the  soul — the 
supremacy  of  the  moral  ideal — must  find 
in  him  a  glorious  witness  and  standard 
bearer  even  in  death ! 

148 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

We  stand  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and 
behold  with  reverent  hearts  the  supreme 
illustration  of  constancy  to  moral  senti- 
ment and  religious  aspiration.  It  is  not 
the  flowing  blood  or  the  darkened  heavens 
that  we1  see,  but  a  brother  man,  who  proves 
that  the  human  soul  is  mightier  than  the 
world.  That  cross  is  but  the  revelation  of 
human  nature;  there  the  preeminence  of 
Inner  Life  was  revealed  and  authenticated. 
Jesus,  in  that  supreme  hour,  was  not  the 
evidence  of  a  reconciliation  between  God 
and  man;  for,  in  all  his  teachings  he 
implied  the  Father's  infinite  love,  not  as  a 
future  but  as  a  present  reality,  not  as  a 
purchase,  but  as  a  gift,  which  men  need 
only  open  their  hearts  to  understand  and 
receive. 

Jesus,  in  that  garden  of  agony  and  on 
that  cruel  cross,  is  witness  to  his  imperial 
doctrine  of  Inner  Life  and  illustration  of 
man's  spiritual  possibility.  The  cross  is 
not  a  blood-signed  pardon,  but  a  divinely 
illuminated  lesson.  Jesus  did  not  bear  our 
cross;  that  we  ourselves  must  do,  as  he 
himself  taught,  but  he  made  our  tasks  of 

149 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

cross-bearing  easier.  Within  the  influence 
of  that  serene  heroism  of  the  spirit, 
patience,  fidelity,  self-sacrifice,  are  easy 
graces.  We  linger  there,  because  we  find 
a  great  soul  proving  what  our  life  ought 
to  be;  and  as  we  linger  we  find  ourselves 
growing  heavenward  toward  the  heroic 
possibility  there  actually  realized. 

This  is  the  Jesus  that  we  know,  study, 
love,  and  follow:  master  of  the  spirit; 
creator  of  a  new  order  of  manhood ;  artist 
of  the  Inner  Life ;  a  "  sublime  genius ' '  who 
rightfully  became  the  center  of  the  world's 
hope  and  love.  He  is  to  us  revelation  and 
inspiration,  not  by  any  strange  and  super- 
natural performance,  but  because  in  him 
"the  moral  perfection  of  man  stands  forth 
in  its  root  and  unity.' p  We  do  not  care  to 
insist  dogmatically  on  the  absolute  sinless- 
ness  of  Jesus.  This  seems  to  us  a  barren 
abstraction  and  a  fruitless  discussion. 
What  does  seem  clear  and  helpful  is  the 
fact  that  the  spirit  of  Jesus  represents  the 
essential  element  of  man's  divinest  life. 

With  all  his  humility  and  tenderness, 
there   is    in   Jesus    unparalleled   purity, 

150 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

strength,  and  manliness  of  character;  a 
prophet  of  the  soul,  who  pours  out  "a 
doctrine  as  beautiful  as  light,  as  sublime 
as  heaven,  and  as  true  as  God."  He  has 
blessings  for  us  in  all  the  circumstances 
of  life,  "  light  for  the  chamber  of  grief, 
power  of  endurance  amid  the  struggles  of 
suffering  nature,' '  and  yet  companion 
meet  in  times  of  joy  and  peace.  There  is 
no  darkness  so  intense  but  that  his  Beati- 
tudes will  bring  some  illumination.  There 
is  no  occasion  so  gloomy  and  cruel  but  that 
the  mention  of  his  name  will  bring  some 
sweet  and  helpful  memories ! 

For  some  years,  Jesus,  as  a  sublime 
character,  expressive  of  Inner  Life,  ap- 
peared to  men  in  the  glory  of  his  humanity, 
and  their  affection  for  him  operated  in 
their  hearts  as  a  saving  moral  power. 
They  had  great  love  for  Jesus,  but  practi- 
cally no  theology  about  him.  But  soon 
there  were  those  who  began  to  be  dissatis- 
fied with  his  spiritual  leadership  and  his 
purely  historical  character;  for  they 
imagined  that  to  think  of  him  in  that 
fashion  lowered  his  dignity  and  cheapened 

151 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

his  gospel.  Also,  Jesus  the  historical 
character  necessarily  came  into  contact 
with  the  speculations  of  the  philosophers. 
The  thinkers  of  the  time  naturally  found 
in  him  the  solution  of  their  philosophical 
problems:  a  fact  which  was  in  itself  a 
tribute  to  his  greatness.  An  inevitable 
transformation  of  Christianity  followed, 
but  it  was  a  transformation  that  carried 
the  world  far  away  from  the  spirit  and 
gospel  of  Jesus  himself.  Then  the  human 
Jesus  disappeared,  crowded  aside  by  theo- 
logical doctrines  respecting  a  creative  being 
called  the  "Logos"  (translated  "Word" 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel),  a  monstrosity  in  the 
household  of  philosophy,  born  of  the  union 
of  Greek  speculation  and  oriental  mysti- 
cism. The  very  word  ' '  Jesus ' '  disappeared 
from  the  Christian  literature  of  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries,  and  we  find  every- 
where nothing  but  the  dogmatic  term, 
"Logos,"  or  its  equivalent,  the  Son. 

As  we  run  over  the  mystical  phrases 
respecting  the  theological  Christ,  with! 
which  all  are  so  familiar,  our  hearts  cry 
out :   Where  is  that  sweet  human  face,  that 

152 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

heroic  man,  whom  we  saw  sowing  gladness 
among  the  simple  folk  of  Galilee?  The 
dogmatists  buried  him  ont  of  sight  under 
a  mass  of  theological  rubbish.  They  took 
away  our  loving  and  lovable  Jesus  and 
gave  us  a  lifeless  abstraction,  as  cheerless 
as  the  grave  and  as  spectral  as  a  ghost. 
They  obscured  his  smile  by  a  terrible 
frown.  They  sealed  the  lips  that  told  the 
story  of  the  Samaritan,  and  they  opened, 
instead,  an  oracle  of  unreason.  They 
erased  the  Beatitudes  and  wrote  in  their 
place  obscure  mysteries. 

The  cross,  which  ought  to  be  to  us  a 
lesson  of  heroism,  marking  the  height  to 
which  human  nature  can  rise,  became  a 
scene  of  judicial  penalty  and  painful  propi- 
tiation. Jesus,  the  moral  teacher,  vanished. 
The  mystical  Logos  advanced;  but  his 
lips  are  dumb  respecting  human  duties; 
his  mission  is  supernatural  and  his  minis- 
try is  judicial;  while  he  is  too  exalted  to 
be  an  example  and  too  remote  to  be  an 
inspiration.  Jesus,  the  brother,  friend, 
and  master  to  love,  disappeared  largely 
from  human  minds.    Instead,  people  were 

153 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

given  a  theory  about  him  in  which  to 
believe.  The  gospel  of  Inner  Life  was  laid 
aside.  Instead,  our  fathers  were  presented 
with  a  pretentious  chart  of  infinite  being 
to  try  to  trace.  That  plea  for  growth  of 
soul  in  likeness  to  his  life  was  hushed. 
Instead,  the  world  was  commanded  to 
accept,  on  faith,  a  mysterious  dogma  about 
Jesus.  And  history  abundantly  shows  how 
impossible  it  has  been  to  unite  in  one 
conception  the  Historical  Jesus  and  that 
theological  fiction.  Just  so  far  as  that 
dogma  is  emphasized,  that  far  the  spirit- 
ual supremacy  of  Jesus  is  obscured  and  his 
religious  helpfulness  is  lessened. 

And  yet  we  must  remember  that  in  all 
the  churches  that  have  put  the  theological 
Christ  foremost  in  their  creeds,  and  in  all 
ages,  the  spirit  of  Jesus  has  been  present. 
For  no  weather  chart,  however  false,  can 
shut  out  the  sunshine  from  the  earth. 
Everywhere  there  have  been  devout  souls 
who  have  known  and  loved  the  real  Jesus, 
just  as  true  hearts  everywhere  beat  under 
the  most  barbaric  costumes.  One  may 
have  a  great  many  superstitions  and  still 

154 


The  Master  of  Inner  Life 

live  a  sweet  and  noble  life.  So,  also,  one 
may  hold  a  great  many  erroneous  notions 
respecting  the  character  of  Jesus 's  mission 
and  yet  be  deeply  penetrated  by  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount.  Nevertheless,  these 
erroneous  notions  are  burdensome  and 
harmful. 

O  Church!  bring  back  the  real  Jesus, 
the  Jesus  who  walked  in  Galilee  and 
blessed  the  children ;  who  taught  so  grand- 
ly and  lived  so  divinely;  who  died  on  the 
cross  a  death  as  heroic  as  his  life  had  been 
pure !  So  long  ecclesiastics  have  kept  him 
buried  beneath  dogmas  that  obscure  the 
beauty  of  his  life  and  hidden  behind  sacra- 
ments that  divert  attention  from  his  spirit 
to  his  blood!  For  how  many  years  did 
Christians  speculate  about  him,  fight  for 
his  sepulchre,  and  persecute  in  his  name! 
Dogmatists  for  centuries  have  said  "  be- 
lieve' '  where  he  said  "do."  They  have 
said  "fear"  where  he  said  "love."  They 
have  frowned  on  human  nature  where  he 
smiled.  They  have  taught  creeds  where 
he  spoke  parables.  The  morality  affirmed 
by  him  as  sufficient  they  have  put  aside 

155 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

as  inadequate.  0  Church!  no  longer  feed 
us  on  dogmatic  mysteries;  no  longer 
imprison  his  spirit;  no  longer  neglect  his 
gospel!  We  are  weak,  wayward  and 
weary ;  give  us  back  Jesus  to  be  our  friend, 
exampler,  teacher  and  inspirer. 


156 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 


THE    GREATNESS   OF  JESUS 

Jesus  Christ  belonged  to  the  true  race  of  prophets. 
He  saw  with  open  eye  the  mystery  of  the  soul.  Drawn 
by  its  severe  harmony,  ravished  with  its  beauty,  he 
lived  in  it,  and  had  his  being  there.  Alone  in  all 
history,  he  estimated  the  greatness  of  man.  One  man 
was  true  to  what  is  in  you  and  me.  He  saw  that  God 
incarnates  himself  in  man,  and  evermore  goes  forth 
anew  to  take  possession  of  his  world. 

The  excellence  of  Jesus,  and  of  every  true  teacher, 
is,  that  he  affirms  the  Divinity  in  him  and  in  us, — not 
thrusts  himself  between  it  and  us. 

Jesus  speaks  always  from  within,  and  in  a  degree 
that  transcends  all  others.  In  that  is  the  miracle.  I 
believe  beforehand  that  it  ought  to  be  so.  All  men  stand 
continually  in  the  expectation  of  the  appearance  of 
such  a  teacher. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

Authority  is  inherent  and  organic  in  the 
universe.  The  authority  of  God  is  imma- 
nent in  every  molecule  of  which  the  cosmos 
is  builded,  in  every  creature  by  whom  it 
is  inhabited.  God  dwells  in  every  particle 
and  spirit,  and  there  is  no  possibility  of 
permanent  revolt  or  complete  chaos.  If 
some  bad  men  seem  to  take  a  straight 
tangent  of  wilfulness,  uninfluenced  by  any 
divine  attraction,  it  is  because  the  orbit 
to  which  God  holds  them  is  so  large  that 
we  do  not  notice  its  curvature.  But  they 
are  not  beyond  the  reach  of  his  power  or 
the  ministry  of  his  love.  There  is  no  abso- 
lutely tangent  motion  among  men  any  more 
than  among  comets.  The  human  will,  with 
all  its  freedom,  operates  under  the  con- 
ditions of  an  omnipotent  law  that  is  omni- 
present love.  The  long-armed  gravity  that 
reaches  through  the  immensities,  the  phys- 
ical energy  that  builds  crystals  with  perfect 

159 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

mathematical  precision,  the  chemical  affin- 
ity that  celebrates  microscopic  weddings 
between  atoms,  the  organic  impulse  that 
builds  a  tree  or  weaves  the  gossamer  wings 
of  insects,  the  manifold  creativeness  that 
endows  the  bee  with  instinct  and  man  with 
intelligence — these  are  mandates  of  a 
throne  that  pervades  all  space. 

It  is  by  authority  of  God  that  hills  and 
valleys  are  clothed  and  unclothed  at  the 
changing  of  the  seasons.  The  river  seems 
to  wind  here  and  there  at  its  own  sweet 
will ;  but  in  reality,  it  is  the  earth  through 
the  sleepless  force  of  gravity  that  leads  it 
all  the  way  from  mountain  to  ocean.  The 
waters  follow  the  line  that  the  finger  of 
the  Lord  draws  across  the  face  of  the 
earth.  The  acorn  bears  within  itself  the 
authority  of  a  thousand  oaks.  Its  artistic 
and  organic  impulse  is  constrained  to  build 
an  oak.  The  pebble  is  held  to  its  bed  on 
the  mountain  side  by  the  authority  of  the 
whole  round  world.  The  invisible  fingers 
that  cover  the  winter  windows  with  crystal 
ferns  do  not  work  unauthorized.  A  divine 
command  sends  the  eagle  into  the  upper 

160 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

air.  It  is  by  authority  that  skylark  and 
oriole  sing.  The  lily  is  compelled  by  an 
imperative  commission  to  lift  aloft  its 
immaculate  lips  to  be  kissed  by  dew  and 
sunshine. 

Divine  authority  is  not  centralized  in 
distant  isolation  or  committed  to  a  special 
hierarchy,  but  it  is  diffused  everywhere. 
The  providence  of  the  living  God  is  not 
an  infrequent  gust  from  some  heavenly 
shore,  but  a  vital  breath  that  blows  perpet- 
ually. We  do  not  have  to  migrate  to  find 
God.  We  have  simply  to  become  conscious 
of  what  is  eternally  present.  Every  atom, 
every  seed,  every  spirit  has  an  inherent 
authority,  behind  which  and  in  which  God 
forever  stands.    Divine  authority  is 

"This  shaping  potency  behind  the  egg, 
This   circulation   swift   of  deity, 
Where  suns  and  systems  inconspicuous  float 
As  the  poor  blood-disks  in  our  mortal  veins." 

God  has  more  especially  poured  himself 
into  humanity.  Here  we  find  the  highest 
types  of  life  and  the  most  marvelous  dis- 
plays of  creativeness.    Progress  in  organ- 

161 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

ization  marks  the  ascending  scale  of  the 
divine  incarnation,  which  reaches  from 
crystal  to  brain  cell,  from  the  dim  yearn- 
ing of  the  savage  to  Buddha's  pity  and 
"Lord  Christ's  heart."  Thus  it  is  that 
God  distills  his  own  authority  into  man 
through  the  ages,  in  the  growth  of  his 
brain  in  extent,  in  complexity,  in  delicacy. 
Every  added  brain  cell  gives  the  soul 
another  window  for  the  vision  of  truth. 
Every  coordination  of  nerve  tissues  by 
discipline  and  training,  as  with  musician, 
artist,  or  linguist,  opens  a  new  channel 
for  the  influx  of  higher  life.  There  is 
more  divinity  in  some  men  and  women, 
because  they  are  more  highly  organized; 
they  are  the  outcome  of  a  longer  and  more 
active  brain-growth  and  soul-building. 

There  are  many  degrees  of  authority 
among  men,  but  the  saintly  spirit  has 
superlative  influence.  The  merchant  prince 
is  known  in  all  the  markets  and  the  world 
is  full  of  his  glory, — a  useful  man  to  his 
age;  but  he  dies  and  in  a  few  years  no 
one  knows  where  he  was  buried.  The 
warrior  makes  and  unmakes  the  map  of  the 

162 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

world  and  all  men  tremble  at  the  glance 
of  his  eye, — he  too  may  bear  a  divine 
commission;  but  he  dies  and  clowns  make 
a  jest  of  his  name.  The  scholar  hives  the 
honey  of  his  life  in  a  book  that  soon  grows 
dingy  in  the  obscure  corner  of  the  library, 
— a  faithful  servant  of  the  ideal;  but  he 
dies  and  only  a  few  students  bless  his 
memory  as  they  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his 
labors.  Some  man  of  superior  goodness 
actually  lives  the  moral  law,  doing  a 
monumental  service  of  goodwill.  He  is 
immortal ;  he  tents  within  the  lonely  heart ; 
he  calls  to  self-sacrifice  the  sleeping  soul 
and  raises  to  life  those  dead  in  sin.  Where- 
ever  his  name  is  spoken  the  "Real  Pres- 
ence" abides.  The  torch  of  truth  which 
we  hold  aloft  lights  the  pathway  of  a  fel- 
low traveler  for  a  time;  but  our  torch  of 
love  kindles  in  his  heart  a  sacred  flame 
that  will  never  go  out. 

We  turn  to  a  person  of  transcendent  pur- 
ity for  spiritual  authority.  His  character 
is  an  argument  that  texts,  statistics,  and 
statutes  can  neither  improve  nor  invali- 
date.   Moral  law  incarnate  in  a  gracious 

163 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

and  heroic  personality  has  an  authority 
that  no  official  ordination  can  infer,  nor 
is  it  dimmed  by  the  lapse  of  ages.  "We 
believe  that  holiness  confers  a  certain 
insight, ' '  wrote  our  great  American  proph- 
et. Beauty  pleases  us,  truth  strengthens 
us,  the  good  commands  us.  A  genius 
charms  us,  a  philosopher  instructs  us,  the 
saint  leads  us.  Art  embellishes  life  and 
makes  the  world  more  attractive ;  learning 
trains  and  enriches  the  mind  and  makes 
life  more  dignified;  religion,  the  artist  of 
the  good  ideal,  regenerates  the  soul  and 
brings  in  a  new  kingdom  of  love. 

Religious  authority  has  been  and  always 
will  be  a  supreme  influence  in  the  world: 
the  influence  of  those  who  have  a  genius 
for  holiness  and  helpfulness.  The  imperi- 
al Augustus  is  a  vague  form  to  all  but 
a  few;  the  learned  men  of  his  time  are 
barely  known  to  the  antiquarian ;  the  mer- 
chants who  supplied  the  wants  of  that  gor- 
geous age  are  forgotten;  but  the  Man  of 
Nazareth,  whose  personality  was  a  diviner 
parable  than  any  that  he  spoke,  has  to-day 
supreme  authority  and  creative  power  in 
cottage  and  in  palace! 

164 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

The  office  of  Jesus 's  authority  is  to  make 
men  like  himself,  so  far  as  he  stood  for 
the  essential  truths  of  the  spiritual  life. 
In  order  that  this  result  may  follow,  how- 
ever, men  must  come  into  rational,  sym- 
pathetic relation  with  his  character.  They 
must  feed  upon  his  spirit  rather  than  recite 
dogmas  that  relate  to  his  origin  and  rank. 
Belief  in  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus 
will  no  more  make  us  like  him  than  belief 
in  the  potency  of  the  planetary  influences 
at  the  birth  of  Angelo  will  make  us  master 
artists.  The  true  authority  of  Jesus,  like 
all  spiritual  influences,  is  not  magisterial 
dictation,  but  personal  inspiration  and 
dynamic  disclosure  of  truth. 

The  churches  have  often  destroyed  the 
religious  authority  of  Jesus  by  the  unnat- 
ural and  irrational  use  made  of  his  name. 
They  have  appealed  to  him  to  silence 
reason  and  tyrannize  over  the  sentiments. 
They  have  demanded  assent  to  dogmas 
about  him  instead  of  cultivating  a  loving 
appreciation  of  his  life.  They  have  failed 
to  see  that  if  Jesus 's  authority  acts  on 
men  at  all,  it  must  act  through  their  reason 

165 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

and  their  conscience.  They  must  see  and 
feel  that  Jesus  has  authority  because  he 
had  a  divine  experience.  Not  until  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  has  been  passed  upon 
and  taken  up  into  one 's  life,  has  the  author- 
ity of  Jesus  been  perfected.  His  helpful- 
ness to  us  is  seen,  not  in  the  orthodoxy  of 
our  opinions,  but  in  the  divinity  of  our 
lives.  Our  salvation  does  not  consist  in 
our  assertion  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God, 
but  in  being  ourselves  true  sons  of  God. 
The  authority  of  Jesus  is  not  illustrated 
by  believing  that  it  was  the  Messiah  who 
said,  ' '  Father,  forgive  them, ' '  but  in  being 
able  to  say  out  of  our  own  actual  heart- 
life,  when  we  are  buffeted  by  enemies, 
"Father,  forgive  them."  It  is  not  shown 
by  holding  that  he  miraculously  raised 
Lazarus,  but  in  tenderly  nursing  the  Laz- 
arus suffering  at  our  door.  It  is  not  dis- 
played by  saying,  "Our  Father,"  because 
he  so  spoke,  but  in  being  able  to  stand 
on  the  mount  of  vision  and  affirm  out 
our  serene  and  joyous  experience,  "Our 
Father,"  as  the  expression  of  the  loving 
reverence  that  we  actually  feel.     In  the 

166 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

time  of  trial  and  danger  we  are  saved  by 
the  weapon  sheathed  in  our  own  soul,  and 
not  by  one  hung  up  in  some  far-off 
armory. 

An  eminent  American  divine  used  these 
words  not  long  since  when  speaking  on  a 
notable  occasion:  " Authority  is  not  in 
the  church  as  Catholics  say;  not  in  reason 
as  rationalists  say ;  not  in  Scripture  as  the 
Reformers  said;  but  in  God  speaking  in 
the  soul  through  Christ ! ' '  Such  language 
as  this  tempts  one  into  hot  protest.  We 
are  prompted  to  exclaim:  "Poor  God,  so 
impotent  that  he  can  only  reach  his  own 
child  by  way  of  Nazareth!  Poor  man,  so 
destitute  of  the  bread  of  life  that  he  starves 
until  a  Gospel  page  flutters  his  way!" 
This  teaching  is  a  practical  denial  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God;  central  in  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  himself.  A  doctrine  like  this, 
that  makes  orphans  of  the  vast  majority 
of  the  human  race,  is  in  no  sense  a  gospel, 
or  good  news.  It  is  a  denial  of  the  Eternal 
Goodness. 

No  divine  authority  except  in  the  words 
of  Christ?    Where  indeed  does  God  oper- 

167 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

ate  if  not  in  all  souls?  How  does  man 
exist  at  all,  if  not  through  the  influence  of 
the  heavenly  tides  of  life  sweeping  every 
moment  into  receptive  hearts'?  By  what 
power  did  the  Parthenon  rise,  Buddha  heal 
human  sorrows,  and  Socrates  triumph  in 
death,  if  not  by  authority  of  him  who  shep- 
herds every  soul?  To  preserve  our  faith 
in  the  love  and  mercy  and  justice  of  the 
Almighty,  to  have  a  God  worthy  of  our 
worship,  we  must  think  of  him  as  passing 
by  no  lonely  soul  but  spreading  a  provi- 
dence of  light  and  love  wherever  a  heart 
beats.  We  do  not  honor  Jesus  by  making 
such  extravagant  and  unreasonable  claims 
for  him.  He  made  no  such  claims  for 
himself.  This  doctrine  alienates  men  from 
Jesus  and  greatly  lessens  his  real  author- 
ity over  human  hearts. 

The  world  begins  to  take  a  fresh  interest 
in  the  problem  presented  by  the  topic, 
"  The  authority  of  Jesus."  There  is  a 
tendency  abroad  to  question  all  kinds  of 
authority.  The  influence  of  science  disin- 
tegrates dogmas  and  dethrones  author- 
itative personages.    All  orthodoxies  have 

168 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

been  shattered  by  modern  thought.  To 
many  the  destructive  side  of  Gospel  Crit- 
icism has  left  the  message  of  Jesus  without 
certainty  or  impressiveness.  One  thing  is 
clear,  whatever  the  authority  of  Jesus  may 
be,  it  must  be  in  line  with  the  universal 
laws  of  human  life.  Let  us  see  whether  we 
can  bring  a  new  sense  of  reality  into  this 
realm,  so  that  we  may  keep  both  the  free- 
dom of  reason  and  the  authority  of  Jesus. 
To  do  this,  let  us  first  briefly  trace  the 
wide  sweep  of  authoritative  acts  and  facts. 
In  the  distant  past,  some  man  discovered 
how  to  build  an  arch  by  tying  his  material 
together  with  a  keystone.  This  builder's 
act  was  authoritative  because  it  was  the 
discovery  and  embodiment  of  an  essential 
truth  of  Nature.  He  found  the  way  to  do 
something  which  is  of  great  importance 
to  mankind.  Every  one  who  builds  takes 
advantage  of  his  discovery.  The  arch  with 
a  keystone  is  now  an  important  factor  in 
all  building  enterprises.  The  authority  of 
the  principle  of  mechanics  which  that  crea- 
tive act  revealed  shapes  the  labor  of  every 
hand.     The  engineer  who  recently  threw 

169 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

a  bridge  with  a  single  span  across  the 
Niagara  river  was  obedient  to  the  author- 
ity of  that  original  discovery. 

But  there  are  things  in  life  besides  gate- 
ways and  bridges — things  more  precious 
than  stone  arches  and  vaulted  roofs. 
There  are  spiritual  characters  that  must 
be  securely  based  and  solidly  constructed. 
The  varied  materials  of  our  daily  life  must 
be  compacted  and  tied  together  by  a  spirit- 
ual purpose  that  shall  act  as  a  keystone. 
We  must  protect  our  heart  treasures,  the 
immortal  harvests  of  our  affections,  by  an 
architecture  of  the  spirit  which  shall  be 
so  strongly  builded  that  no  storm  can  beat 
down  the  temple  of  our  life  and  no  flood 
sweep  away  the  riches  of  the  soul. 

To  a  little  company  of  people  Jesus 
spoke,  out  of  his  experience,  one  of  his 
discoveries  respecting  the  spiritual  life: 
"If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and 
there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath 
aught  against  thee:  leave  there  thy  gift 
before  the  altar  and  go  thy  way:  first  be 
reconciled  to  thy  brother  and  then  come 
and  offer  thy  gift."     What  is  the  truth 

170 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

here  disclosed?  That  to  be  forgiven  we 
must  first  be  forgiving;  that  the  essence 
of  piety  is  not  outward  form,  but  inward 
feeling:  that  we  cannot  be  at  peace  with 
God  while  at  enmity  with  our  neighbor; 
that  the  way  of  salvation  lies  through  the 
heart,  not  through  an  external  rite;  that 
in  the  sight  of  God  our  rank  is  determined, 
not  by  our  altar  offerings,  but  by  our 
love  for  man,  and  that  our  real  blessedness 
consists  in  service  rather  than  in  sacrifice. 
Here  Jesus  set  forth  a  fundamental  princi- 
ple of  spiritual  architecture  which  he  had 
discovered  in  his  own  experience.  He  had 
lived  the  truth  in  his  own  life,  and  the 
result  had  proved  it  to  be  a  supreme  fact 
in  the  spiritual  universe. 

All  this  was  said  in  an  obscure  corner 
by  a  man  without  position  or  following. 
But  the  question  of  authority  is  not  deter- 
mined by  artificial  rank  or  social  condition. 
It  hinges  solely  here:  Is  this  an  essential 
fact?  Is  it  true  to  the  constitution  of 
things!  Here  lay  the  authority  of  the 
builder  of  the  first  arch;  here  also  is  the 
authority  of  Jesus.    This  truth  respecting 

171 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

forgiveness  represents  the  absolute  science 
of  life,  because  a  fundamental  principle 
of  the  moral  order.  It  also  represents  the 
supreme  art  of  life,  because  whoever  puts 
it  into  practice  finds  his  act  justified  by  a 
permanence,  beauty  and  blessedness  of 
existence  which  he  can  reach  in  no  other 
way. 

The  fact  also  that  Jesus  had  made  this 
discovery  in  his  own  experience  and  proved 
it  true  by  putting  it  into  his  own  life  gave 
superlative  authority  to  his  teaching.  He 
had  tested  the  proposition,  "Forgive  and 
you  shall  be  forgiven, ' '  so  that  like  the  man 
who  built  the  first  arch  he  could  say :  * '  This 
is  not  guesswork  or  theory,  but  a  primary 
principle  of  human  life.  If  you  will  make 
the  experiment,  forgive  your  enemy,  you 
will  find  in  the  result  wrought  out  in  your 
own  life  the  complete  demonstration  of  the 
spiritual  law." 

This  is  just  what  people  have  been  doing 
for  two  thousand  years.  They  have  been 
taking  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  made  vital 
and  commanding  by  his  example,  and  put- 
ting it  into  life.     Whoever  has  done  this 

172 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

has  found  by  experience  just  what  Jesus 
discovered:  This  law  of  forgiveness, — a 
principle  of  spirituality  productive  of  joy, 
a  sentiment  of  love  supremely  beneficent, — 
is  true.  The  appeal  to  life  demonstrates 
the  gospel.  Here  is  the  spiritual  keystone 
that  ties  together  and  makes  firm  and 
strong  the  arch  of  life.  Here  is  the 
gracious  workmanship  that  makes  beauti- 
ful and  permanent  the  structure  of  charac- 
ter. Here  is  a  supreme  law  which,  if 
a  man  live,  he  shall  have  eternal  life,  not 
as  a  future  reward,  but  as  a  present  pos- 
session. 

The  authority  of  Jesus  is  in  the  fact 
that  he  made  clear  a  better  way  of  life, 
as  the  builder  of  the  first  arch  made  plain 
a  better  method  of  handicraft.  Jesus 
published  and  demonstrated  in  himself  an 
essential  fact,  eternal  in  the  constitution 
of  the  moral  order.  Whoever  has  tried  to 
put  his  teaching  into  practice  has  found 
it  to  be  the  pathway  to  blessedness.  Mil- 
lions of  men  have  made  the  experiment 
and  reached  the  result.  The  world  has 
moved  steadily  toward  this  point  since  his 

173 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

day.  Here  is  his  influence  and  authority. 
All  this  was  felt  at  the  beginning.  At  the 
end  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  it  is 
recorded  that  Jesus  "taught  them  as  one 
having  authority.' '  He  made  this  impres- 
sion because  he  spoke  out  of  his  own 
experience  directly  to  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers.  He  spoke  with  power,  because 
he  spoke  with  simplicity  and  earnestness 
about  great  truths  that  were  to  him  a 
personal  discovery. 

Jesus 's  use  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
illustrates  the  quality  and  method  of  his 
authority,  as  just  described.  He  used 
Scripture  for  illustration,  but  not  as  a 
dictum  to  overawe  those  who  listened. 
His  appeal  to  texts  was  spiritual  and  edu- 
cational, always  with  due  respect  for  the 
reason  and  conscience  of  his  hearers.  It 
was  never  dogmatic,  with  the  implication 
that  the  verbal  statement  is  a  final  rule 
overriding  mind  and  heart.  He  never 
said:  Believe  this  just  because  it  is  so 
written.  His  habit  was  to  plead:  "Hold 
this  saying  like  a  torch  out  into  life  and 
see  how  far  it  will  light  up  your  pathway. ' ' 

174 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

Jesus 's  method  of  handling  Scripture 
shows  a  deep  insight  into  the  true  nature  of 
both  text  and  human  soul,  and  it  affords  us 
a  wise  example  which  we  may  well  follow. 

The  movement  toward  spirituality  in 
religion, — toward  forgiveness  that  over- 
comes hatred  and  toward  service  as  better 
than  sacrifice, — which  Jesus  created,  has 
been  as  irresistible  as  the  flow  of  the  moun- 
tain waters  to  the  sea,  because  the  author- 
ity of  the  facts  which  he  revealed  is  as 
supreme  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  This 
influence  is  not,  however,  something  super- 
natural and  apart  from  our  common 
experience.  The  gospel  is  authoritative 
because  natural  and  human,  and  therefore 
most  truly  divine. 

The  authority  of  Jesus  comes  into  line 
with  countless  other  experiences.  Show 
the  world,  as  some  far-off  Egyptian  did, 
how  to  care  for  the  sick  poor,  making  plain 
the  joy  and  nobility  of  that  service  of 
mercy,  and  under  the  authority  of  that 
love  hospitals  will  be  set  up  all  over  the 
world.  Likewise,  when  Jesus  told  the 
story  of  the  Samaritan,  he  described  a  way 

175 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

of  life  that  appeals  to  the  reason  and  con- 
science as  true  and  beautiful.  The  act  of 
kindness  there  pictured  is  authoritative 
because  in  harmony  with  the  moral  con- 
stitution of  human  society,  and  therefore 
fruitful  of  infinite  joy.  The  discovery  hav- 
ing been  made  that  this  is  the  better  way  of 
life,  multitudes  walk  in  it. 

The  world  is  full  of  similar  illustra- 
tions. Show  how  to  treat  wounds  by  a  new 
method  as  Dr.  Lister  did,  and  this  heal- 
ing wisdom  will  fly  round  the  globe  as  on 
wings  of  angels.  His  discovery  will  be 
authoritative  wherever  a  surgeon  operates 
upon  a  patient.  Likewise  when  Jesus  found 
a  wounded,  but  repentant,  publican,  and 
warmed  him  into  new  life  by  his  great  love, 
that  act  also  became  authoritative.  The 
sympathy  shown  Zaccheus  revealed  the 
constitution  of  the  soul  and  demonstrated 
the  way  of  helpfulness.  The  friendly  deed 
showed  how  the  spiritually  wounded  may 
be  healed.  It  revealed  the  power  of  sympa- 
thy and  defined  the  source  of  gladness. 
Under  the  authority  of  that  loving  act,  as 
under  the  authority  of  Lister's  skill,  mill- 

176 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

ions  of  men  and  women  have  reclaimed  the 
wayward  and  healed  the  sick  in  spirit. 

And  all  this  has  come  about,  not  because 
Jesus  was  the  promised  Messiah,  not  be- 
cause he  was  the  mediatorial  God-Man, 
not  because  he  was  the  mystical  second 
person  of  the  Trinity,  but  because  by  his 
spiritual  experience  he  was  able  to  set 
forth  a  supreme  fact  of  life  with  power, 
which,  when  set  forth,  is  evidently  as 
superior  to  the  old  way  of  life  as  the  arch 
to  the  former  style  of  building.  The 
authority  of  Jesus,  therefore,  does  not  lie 
in  the  fact  that  he  had  a  supernatural  rank 
or  a  superhuman  experience  (this  would 
have  destroyed  his  authority),  but  rather 
in  the  fact  that  he  had  a  strictly  human 
experience,  so  that  what  he  discovered  in 
his  own  life  is  applicable  to  ours. 

The  authority  of  Jesus  is,  then,  the 
authority  of  a  remarkable  religious  experi- 
ence, in  which  he  laid  hold  of  the  primary 
and  essential  facts  and  laws  of  the  spiritual 
life.  This  interpretation  sets  him  in  the 
clear  light  of  truth,  free  from  mysticism, 
on  a  throne  of  power  which  physical  science 

m 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

cannot  overthrow,  with  a  sceptre  of  influ- 
ence which  textual  criticism  cannot  striker 
from  his  hand. 

Two  advantages  issue  from  this  inter- 
pretation: (1)  We  will  no  longer  go  to 
Jesus  for  authority  outside  the  circle  of  his 
experience.  Upon  all  such  matters  as  the 
authorship  of  the  Pentateuch  and  the 
Psalms,  the  credibility  of  the  story  of  the 
fall  of  Adam,  and  kindred  topics,  he  had 
no  special  experience  and  shed  no  light. 
(2)  The  fact  that  he  probably  shared  some 
of  the  erroneous  notions  of  his  time,  that 
lay  quite  apart  from  his  special  experience, 
does  not  invalidate  his  ethical  authority. 
The  propositions  of  Euclid  are  not  set 
aside  by  the  fact  that  Euclid  believed  the 
earth  flat.  But  in  reference  to  matters 
of  greatest  moment  and  most  frequent 
urgency,  matters  of  conduct  upon  which 
our  happiness  and  the  happiness  of  others 
most  depend,  here  Jesus  had  a  remarkable 
experience,  and  his  words  on  these  prob- 
lems are  authoritative.  Not  in  the  sense  of 
final  dogma  to  be  blindly  accepted,  but  as 
great  truths  to  be  freely,  though  reverently, 
studied  and  applied. 

178 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

When  we  count  the  many  vital  points  of 
human  life  on  which  Jesus  spoke,  the  many- 
phases  of  duty  made  clear,  the  many  prob- 
lems illustrated,  the  many  paths  to  joy  and 
blessing  described,  the  multitude  of  pri- 
mary spiritual  truths  which  go  right  home 
to  the  center  of  our  common  life  and 
demonstrate  themselves  when  we  apply 
them, — this  fact  alone  proves  the  large 
proportions  of  his  religious  genius,  while 
it  reveals  a  wonderful  experience  in 
spiritual  things  which  we  may  well  trust. 
The  validity  of  the  teachings  which  came 
out  of  that  experience  is  shown  by  their 
fruitage.  When  men  have  lived  them  there 
have  been  joys  innumerable  and  excel- 
lencies indescribable. 

As  we  look  along  the  centuries  in  Chris- 
tian lands  from  the  time  of  Jesus  to  the 
present,  we  see  that  human  life  has  every- 
where moved  up  toward  the  ideals  set  forth 
in  the  Gospels.  Often  slowly,  never 
uniformly,  but  from  age  to  age  there  has 
been  some  onward  movement.  In  spite  of 
certain  apparent  retrogressions,  the  centu- 
ries show  a  decided  progress.     Cruelties 

179 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

have  vanished  and  gracious  humanities 
have  multiplied.  Evils  have  withered,  while 
purity,  mercy,  justice,  and  forgiveness 
abound  more  and  more.  The  worship  of 
God  becomes  more  spiritual;  the  service 
of  man  more  general.  There  is  an  increas- 
ing realization,  in  home  and  church,  in 
school  and  state,  of  those  moral  principles 
which  Jesus  taught  and  lived.  So  much 
still  to  be  done:  battles  for  the  right 
unfinished,  the  mountain  heights  of  love 
and  purity  unreached  by  many;  and  yet, 
there  really  have  been  substantial  gains ! 

Wherever  men  have  put  the  teachings 
oi  Jesus  into  practice,  the  individual  and 
social  results  justify  the  effort.  Wherever 
men  have  tried  to  do  by  others  as  they 
would  have  others  do  by  them,  joy  has 
come  on  all  sides;  and  human  life  has 
moved  upward  in  this  direction.  Wherever 
men  have  made  love  the  master  motive, 
there  blessedness  has  followed;  and  this 
divine  sentiment  more  and  more  rules 
human  hearts  everywhere.  Wherever  the 
self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  cross  has  been 
obeyed,  there  the  desert  has  blossomed  as 

180 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

the  rose ;  and  this  loving  service  for  others 
continually  spreads.  We  do  not  credit  all 
this  to  Jesus;  God  and  man  unceasingly 
work  for  these  high  ends.  But  what  we  do 
claim  is  this:  The  results  illustrate  the 
spiritual  authority  of  Jesus.  The  princi- 
ples which  he  taught  for  the  guidance  of 
human  life  have,  in  the  great  sweep  of 
history,  been  proved  supremely  good  and 
true. 

We  do  not  hold  that  Jesus  touched  all 
points  of  human  duty,  illustrated  all  forms 
of  excellence,  and  exhausted  the  treasury 
of  spiritual  wisdom,  so  that  there  are  no 
more  discoveries  to  be  made  in  the  realm 
of  ethics.  But  it  is  a  conservative  claim 
that  he  did  make  clear  and  powerful  certain 
supreme  facts  of  our  moral  life  that  can 
never  be  outgrown,  and  that  must  have  a 
high  place  in  the  greatest  character  and  the 
noblest  civilization. 

There  is  one  other  point  of  supreme 
interest  in  this  connection,  which  must  be 
briefly  stated,  although  its  great  impor- 
tance makes  it  deserving  of  extended  dis- 
cussion.   It  is  this:   Besides  these  truths 

181 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

respecting  conduct  and  character,  which 
Jesus  affirmed  and  which  the  ages  have 
confirmed,  he  also  set  forth  two  great  con- 
victions :  The  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
Hope  of  Immortality,  not  original  with 
him,  but  affirmed  by  him  with  great  power 
and  clearness.  In  the  gospel  of  Jesus, 
these  two  spiritual  convictions  are  inex- 
tricably bound  up  with  his  more  distinctly 
ethical  teachings.  They  came  out  of  the 
same  experience;  they  seemed  to  him 
equally  clear  and  authoritative ;  they  are  so 
interwoven  with  his  ethical  judgments  that 
both  go  together,  each  in  turn  leaning  upon 
and  supporting  the  other;  and  to  him 
evidently  the  more  distinctly  religious 
seemed  as  necessary  to  a  complete  human 
life  as  the  more  distinctly  moral. 

We  cannot  conceive  of  Jesus 's  morality 
apart  from  its  theistic  basis,  and  we  cannot 
conceive  of  his  theism  apart  from  its  prac- 
tical fruitage  in  a  good  life.  The  nobility, 
beauty  and  authority  of  Jesus  would  be 
swept  away  should  we  fail  to  listen  to 
both  "Thy  will  be  done,"  in  the  garden, 
and  to  the  "Go,  sin  no  more,"  spoken  to 

182 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

the  woman.  Out  of  the  same  great  life- 
experience  came  Jesus 's  strong  hold  upon 
love  as  the  master  motive  of  life,  and  upon 
love  also  as  the  law  of  the  universe. 

Now,  the  point  which  needs  to  be  urged 
with  all  possible  emphasis,  is  this:  Shall 
we  accept  the  authority  of  Jesus  respecting 
our  human  relations  and  reject  what  he 
says  about  our  spiritual  relations?  The 
reasonable  conclusion  certainly  is  that  one 
who  went  so  deeply  into  life  that  he  laid 
hold  of  primary  and  fundamental  truths 
on  the  side  of  morality  in  a  most  remark- 
able manner,  must  also  by  the  same  expe- 
rience have  grasped  with  equal  vigor  and 
clearness  the  primary  and  fundamental 
facts  of  our  being  as  they  relate  to  Provi- 
dence and  Destiny.  To  go  far  enough  to 
see  what  is  eternally  right  between  man 
and  man  is  to  go  far  enough  to  see  the 
bonds  that  bind  us  to  the  Infinite.  The 
lamp  of  experience  bright  enough  to  reveal 
the  quality  of  our  human  brotherhood  is 
also  bright  enough  to  make  clear  the 
quality  of  our  divine  sonship. 

Jesus,  speaking  out  of  his  experience, 

183 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

set  forth  a  hundred  commands  of  life  which 
touch  the  wide  circle  of  our  human  rela- 
tions. So  powerful  and  comprehensive  was 
his  grasp  upon  the  deep  things  of  character 
that  he  spoke  with  supreme  authority.  The 
ages  have  steadily  moved  toward  this  ideal, 
and  as  humanity  has  moved  onward  toward 
him,  the  world  has  grown  more  noble, 
attractive,  and  gladsome.  The  best  that 
we  can  dream  of  human  happiness  to-day 
is  that  his  gospel  be  lived  by  all.  If  that 
were  done,  heaven  would  be  here. 

If  therefore  the  centuries  demonstrate 
in  this  large  and  wonderful  way  the  truth 
of  his  central  and  essential  teachings  in 
this  realm  of  human  conduct,  with  what 
confidence  may  we  accept  the  message  that 
he,  speaking  out  of  the  same  experience, 
brings  us  about  the  love  of  God  and  the 
immortality  of  the  soul?  There  can  be  no 
greater  authority  for  the  hopes  and  trusts 
of  the  pious  heart  than  the  affirmations  of 
one  whose  teachings  upon  the  practical  side 
of  life  have  been  demonstrated  to  be  true, 
beautiful,  and  good  by  millions  of  men 
during  some  two  thousand  years.    If  the 

184; 


The  Authority  of  Jesus 

best  in  the  world  to-day  comes  from  putting 
his  gospel  into  practice,  we  may  be 
supremely  confident  that  what  he  says  of 
the  love  of  God  is  also  true. 

Moreover,  the  fruitage  of  these  ethical 
principles  of  the  gospel  is  largest  and 
richest  only  as  ripened  in  the  sunshine  of 
his  teachings  about  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 
We  reach  the  widest  human  good  only  as 
we  walk  by  faith  in  the  divine  love.  Our 
confidence  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  eternal  life  is  a  vast  help  to  our  ethical 
life.  To  get  the  best  out  of  the  ethics  of 
Jesus,  we  must  also  go  with  him  in  his 
spiritual  convictions.  And  as  there  can 
be  no  schism  or  duplicity  in  Nature,  the 
fact  that  this  practical  ethical  fruitage  does 
follow  the  spiritual  convictions  respecting 
God  and  Immortality  justifies  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  more  distinctly  religious 
teachings  of  Jesus,  which  are  also  the 
affirmations  of  the  soul,  are  true.  Here 
again  we  see  that  the  authority  of  Jesus 
is  the  authority  inherent  in  human  experi- 
ence. His  gospel  can  be  incarnated  in 
our  life  because  it  came  out  of  a  kindred 

185 


The  Supremacy  of  Jesus 

life,  and  when  put  into  life  it  fruits  in 
supreme  blessedness.  Nothing  can  go 
deeper  or  reach  higher  than  this  appeal 
to  life. 


186 


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